


Expectations:  All Our Lives

by aquariuslover



Series: Expectations! [5]
Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ, Star Trek, Super Junior
Genre: Alternate Universe - Past Lives, Guardian of Time - Freeform, M/M, Soulmates, Time Travel, Timeless love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-06
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-04-19 01:53:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 24,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14226537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aquariuslover/pseuds/aquariuslover
Summary: Captain Yunho and Jaejoong go on a most unusual journey.





	1. The Forgotten Dream

**Author's Note:**

> This story is inspired by Star Trek. The crew of the Expectations will be made up of members of DBSK and Super Junior. Instead of chapters the story will be broken up in adventures.

A cool breeze brushed against his cheek, awakening him from a deep, forgetful sleep. He opened his sleepy eyes, and lifted his head from the warm shoulder it had been resting upon to look up into sad, brown eyes.  
  
“Did you wake up, Baby?”  
  
He blinked, confused, and looked past the unfamiliar face to the sky. The sky caught his attention immediately with its sparkly moons of purple and gold shining brightly down like little suns.  
  
He felt his body shift as the man with the sad eyes, who was holding him, moved him to rest against his hip.  
  
“Jaejoong, are you sure there isn’t another way?” he heard another voice ask. He turned his head around to look at a tall, beautiful woman, who smiled at him, while tears glided down her cheeks.  
  
A warm kiss brushed his cheek, and the one who was holding him answered, “No, there isn’t another way…there was never another way.”  
  
The tall, beautiful woman walked closer to him and reached a hand out gently, rubbing his arm. “I can see the old Changmin in him now…big, brown, crookedly…perfect Changmin eyes.”  
  
“Yes, everything of me that was in him…had to be…he must be free of that. He’s going to be fine…we already know that. He’ll be with Yunho, and he will live to grow up,” the man who was holding him told the beautiful woman as he tightened his hold on him.  
  
“Does that make it easier?” the woman asked.  
  
He squirmed as the embrace that held him tightened, and he let out a cry of protest. The arms around him immediately loosened their hold. He looked up at the one that was holding him. The man was now shaking his head. “No, nothing makes this easier…but Yunho was right; it has to be done. If he stays here, he will just…die along with us.”  
  
“It’s just…just so tragic…it’s heartbreaking. I hate this so much.”  
  
He suddenly felt himself falling toward the ground as the man holding him stumbled, but the woman quickly reached out her hands, steadying them. “You have to take him,” the man ordered as he pushed him into her arms. “Yunho is getting weaker…there isn’t much time left. We have to hurry.”  
  
The woman held him close to her chest, and he felt her nod her head in understanding. “I can do this. He’ll be okay. I promise. I will take him to Yunho’s parents.” He struggled in her grasp to peer his head over her shoulder. His eyes lit up in wonderment when he took in a standing pool of water. A pool of standing blue waters that hung in the air, but did not spill. He smiled.  
  
“You have to convince them to keep him…without telling them the truth. Changmin should not be able to read them, but if I failed…or if something happens in the future, and he is able to read them, he can’t ever know. History has to play out this way,” the sad man beseeched the beautiful woman who was now holding him.  
  
“He will be fine. You will know him again…or he will know you. Maybe it can be avoided-”  
  
He watched the standing pool of water as he felt her tears fall upon him. He listened as the one named Jaejoong cried out in bitterness, “It can never be avoided. Never. We are always here at this point in time. That’s the tragedy of it all. You have to go now.”  
  
The woman turned to face the standing pool of water, and he was turned away from it. He frowned. The moons had lost their luster now.  
  
“Guardian,” the one named Jaejoong said in a voice of authority. “I have brought you my son. I wish for you…”  
  
“I know all that has ever been, and all that will ever be,” a deep voice boomed, causing him to press his face against the woman’s shoulder to hide. “Bring me your son, and I will see him delivered to his father.”  
  
“And that…will be enough to save him?”  
  
“You have been witness to the proof of this,” the voice chided loudly.  
  
He felt a trembling hand against his cheek, and he lifted his head to look at the man. The man’s eyes were locked on him, full of regret and sorrow. “I love you so much…so much. You might not always believe me…and in your future, I might not even know how much, but I love you. I love you and your father more than anything.”  
  
“Jaejoong,” the woman whispered.  
  
“Go now! Yunho is dying,” the man ordered as he pulled his hand away from him. He couldn’t take his eyes off the sad man as the distance between them increased as the woman rushed toward the pool of standing water. He watched as the man crumbled to the ground in agony, while never taking his eyes off of him. He felt he should know him, but he did not remember why he should feel this way.  
  
  
  
***********************  
  
Changmin awoke from a restless sleep, covered in sweat, and with a sharp, piercing pain searing throughout his head. He reached his hands up to his head, and pressed them against his temples. He clamped his eyes shut as the memory of the dream slipped away from him.  
  
The pain faded away with the memory of the dream. He slowly opened his eyes and struggled to calm his racing heart. It was always the same for as long as he could remember…the forgotten dream that had always haunted him.  
  
His internal clock told him it was early morning. He reached out for the bedside table, and grabbed his insignia. He held on to it, trying to find his voice before he called for the only one he ever remembered needing.  
  
  
****************  
  
“Stoooppp!” Yunho stammered and yawned as Jaejoong shook his shoulders, trying to awaken him.  
  
“Yunho, wake up.”  
  
Yunho placed his pillow over his head. “No, no…go away,” Yunho grumbled from underneath his pillow.  
  
“How is it possible that you are the same man that wakes up instantly after hearing the slightest chirp of an insignia, but if I try to wake you up….all I get is grief?” Jaejoong complained as he pulled the pillow away from Yunho, and whacked him with it. “I should be offend-”  
  
The familiar chirp went off, interrupting Jaejoong’s tirade and causing Yunho to bolt up in bed, reaching for his insignia. “Captain here.”  
  
“Case in point,” Jaejoong sighed, annoyed as he fell back on the bed.  
  
“Yunho, I require your presence this morning,” Changmin’s uncharacteristically desperate-sounding voice said over the insignia.  
  
“Where?”  
  
“The gym; I will be outside your quarters in approximately five minutes,” Changmin answered, ending the communication.  
  
Jaejoong sat back up in bed. Jaejoong scooted to the side of the bed, and watched as Yunho bounced out of bed. His eyes did not leave Yunho as the other man jumped into the sonic shower. “He requires you?”  
  
“That’s what he said,” Yunho replied, without providing Jaejoong with any more information.  
  
Jaejoong fought the temptation to enter Yunho’s mind and take what he wanted. “I’ve been on the ship for over three months now, and I don’t remember him requiring you before.”  
  
“Jae, I know you are not asking about Changmin. I mean, you have made it very clear that you have no interest whatsoever in him,” Yunho said from inside the sonic shower with a touch of sarcasm.  
  
“Yunho, don’t be like that. I simply asked that you stop forcing us together…I might be curious about your relationship with him,” Jaejoong explained as he watched a naked Yunho step out of the shower.  
  
“What are you curious about?”  
  
“I…I...you always seemed to be the affectionate one. He requires your presence? Do you know why?” Jaejoong carefully asked as he watched Yunho step into the dressing chamber.  
  
“Changmin is not good with emotions…I am. I make it very easy for him. I always have. Changmin and I have always been very close, even though it might not always seem that way.”  
  
“How so?” Jaejoong asked, trying to hide the eagerness from his voice.  
  
Yunho stepped out of the dressing chamber in his work out clothes. “Why are you so interested?”  
  
“Because I love you…and because I might have had other plans for us this morning,” Jaejoong said as he scrambled for a good reason for his curiosity.  
  
“Sorry, bros over hoes,” Yunho said, laughing at his own joke. Yunho stopped laughing immediately when Jaejoong’s eyes narrowed, and he cast a vicious glare in Yunho’s direction. Yunho cleared his throat, and he quickly clarified. “When Changmin first came to live with my family, and before we knew he was my biological son…he was instantly attached to me. I mean he loves his grandparents in his special Changmin way, but as a little boy, he would have a screaming fit if we were ever separated.”  
  
Jaejoong’s glare faded and his face softened. “That’s really sweet.”  
  
Yunho smiled back at him. “You know, if you ever tell Changmin I told you that, I’ll deny it. I tell him you mind raped me…against my will. My honorable captain ways only extend so far.”  
  
Jaejoong got up and followed Yunho out of the bedroom. “Mind rape; that’s so romantic.”  
  
Yunho stopped at the door and looked back at Jaejoong. “Changmin can be very scary.”  
  
“Be on your way, Cowardly Captain.”  
  
*************  
  
Yunho stepped out into the corridor, and the doors to quarters he shared with Jaejoong closed shut behind him. “Changmin,” Yunho said with a smile as he looked at his son, who was leaning against the wall, waiting on him.  
  
“Yunho.”  
  
Changmin pushed away from the wall. Yunho walked over and gave his shoulder a comforting pat. “So you feel like a good workout this morning?”  
  
“I feel like hitting a punching bag…with great ferocity.”  
  
Yunho winced. “Bad night?”  
  
“Bad morning, I had the dream again…” Changmin trailed off highly irritated. “It’s so frustrating.”  
  
Yunho’s hand that had been patting Changmin’s shoulder slid down and rested on the small of his back. “I know, but it’s always been like this. You will just have to settle for knowing 99.9% of everything, and accept that the details of the dream will forever elude you.”  
  
Changmin frowned at Yunho and said nothing, but he did not move away from his young father.  
  
“I know you don’t like it, but what can you do?”  
  
Changmin continued to frown at Yunho.  
  
“I was surprised when you wanted to go to the gym this morning,” Yunho continued, ignoring the frown that was aimed at him.  
  
“Surprised?” Changmin questioned.  
  
Now Yunho frowned at Changmin. “Security is having their-”  
  
“I completely forgot,” Changmin gasped as his frown fell away. “My mind is not correlating information this morning…it’s very unsettling.”  
  
Yunho reached his arm completely around Changmin’s waist and squeezed. “The dream always throws you off. It’s no biggie. You will be back to your normal, knowledge sprouting self in no time.”  
  
Changmin nodded his head. “I do not feel like working out now. Perhaps watching others exhibiting violent behavior will be sufficient.”  
  
Yunho chuckled. “Perhaps, but we probably should change if we are just going to be observing.”  
  
“Yes, that would-”  
  
Changmin was cut off when Ryeowook walked out of the quarters that were next to the Captains, bitching at Kyuhyun, who followed him out. “You are a pig that’s why.”  
  
“I am no more a pig than he is! It’s not fair that you can forgive him and not me,” Kyuhyun protested.  
  
Ryeowook continued, oblivious to the captain who was watching them. “It’s because I naturally would feel sorry for anybody who had the bad sense to get into a relationship with you.”  
  
The captain cleared his throat, causing Kyuhyun and Ryeowook to both look up from their squabbling. “Why if it isn’t my Chief Medical Officer and First Officer fighting like lovesick schoolgirls. What did I tell you two about keeping your dirty laundry private?”  
  
“To be fair, Captain, we were just exiting our quarters,” Kyuhyun pointed out to the captain.  
  
Ryeowook gave Yunho and Changmin a look of disapproval. “We didn’t know the captain and science officer were lurking in the hallway.”  
  
“I do not lurk,” Changmin informed him.  
  
The captain smiled despite himself. “ _Our_  quarters?”  
  
“We just share them…at different times. He just came over early to whine and bitch,” Ryeowook quickly explained. “We are not living together.”  
  
Kyuhyun rolled his eyes at Ryeowook, and then focused on Changmin and Yunho. “Are you two going to work out? Not just going for the show?”  
  
“Well, we were, but now we are just going for the show. We are going to run in and change real fast,” Yunho told them as he pushed Changmin through the doors to his quarters.  
  
Changmin found himself in Yunho and Jaejoong’s quarters before he knew what was happening to him. Jaejoong, who was sitting on a sofa in the living area dressed in his blue uniform, looked up and smiled.  
  
“Back so soon?” Jaejoong asked, looking at Yunho.  
  
“Like you didn’t know we were still outside the doorway.”  
  
Jaejoong grinned up at Yunho and crossed his legs. “Well, since you are my bondmate, and I’m a highly telepathic and empathic being…yeah, I knew. But since I am being a good telepath, I don’t know why you are back.”  
  
“Changmin, go change,” Yunho said, pushing Changmin in the direction of the bedroom where the dressing chamber was located. Changmin did as instructed without argument. Yunho looked back down at Jaejoong. “We are changing clothes.”  
  
“I gathered that much.”  
  
“There is a security, like, contest-tryout this morning. Heechul likes to call it a manly man test. We are going to watch that instead of workout,” Yunho explained.  
  
Jaejoong’s eyes lit up. “Sounds fun.”  
  
 _“You can’t go.”  
  
“I can’t?”  
  
“Changmin is off today. He needs me.”  
  
“Oh, that’s okay then. I mostly just like manly men that captain starships.”_  
  
Yunho walked over to Jaejoong and bent down and kissed his cheek. “I kinda love you…a lot.”  
  
“I know.”  
  
“Yunho, would you please get dressed, so we can leave,” Changmin demanded as he walked out of the bedroom, already changed.  
  
Yunho turned around and saluted Changmin. “Yes, Sir, on my way now, Sir!”  
  
Changmin stared at the wall above Jaejoong’s head as Yunho entered the bedroom to get dressed.  
  
Jaejoong looked up uncomfortably at Changmin, who avoided his gaze. He knew he should keep his mouth shut, but there was a part of him that had to ask. “So, are you alright?”  
  
Changmin’s gaze slowly lowered to meet Jaejoong’s eyes. “I am perfectly fine.”  
  
“Oh, good…you are sleeping, then?” Jaejoong prompted, wilting under that stern gaze, and immediately regretting his words as he felt Changmin’s anger flare up.  
  
“What did he tell you?” Changmin asked in an icy voice.  
  
Jaejoong shook his head frantically. “Nothing! Nothing at all.”  
  
Changmin gave Jaejoong a look that suggested he didn’t believe a word out of his mouth. He then turned and headed toward the door. “I will wait for Yunho outside.”  
  
Jaejoong watched as Changmin exited and then lowered his head. He covered his face with his hands and repeated over and over, “I’m an idiot…idiot…idiot…idiot…idiot-”  
  
“What did you do?”  
  
Jaejoong uncovered his hands and looked up at a fully dressed Yunho. “I asked Changmin if he was sleeping.”  
  
“Jae! Did you read his mind?” Yunho accused as he outwardly cringed.  
  
“No…why…I wouldn’t...what if I read yours?” Jaejoong scrabbling, covering quickly.  
  
“You didn’t read mine! I know when you read mine!” Yunho snapped. “I can’t believe you would read his mind!”  
  
Jaejoong concentrated on Yunho, surprised by his admission. “How do you know when I read your mind?”  
  
“Because it feels fuzzy…like it feels right now, so stop it,” Yunho informed him as he placed both his hands on his hips, full of disapproval, looking more like a disapproving mother than a starship captain.  
  
Jaejoong’s mouth dropped open, and he stopped. “How can you know that? I mean, I suspected you were developing the skill…but it’s too soon! It’s all too soon! Even two full blooded Joongs wouldn’t be so tightly bonded this soon! It’s all happening too soon!”  
  
“I’ve always excelled at everything I do,” Yunho told him smugly.  
  
“I probably was beginning to shift all those weeks ago…this is just great,” Jaejoong grumbled. He cursed mentally to himself, realizing he would be lucky if he didn’t end up with twenty kids by the time he was fifty, and just his luck, he would have to give birth to all of them. “This isn’t normal!”  
  
Yunho studied Jaejoong, who did not look happy. “Hmm…troubled that we are on a more even playing field?”  
  
“No,” Jaejoong denied.  
  
“I think you are, but that isn’t the issue right now. You can’t be reading Changmin’s mind-”  
  
Jaejoong stood up and took Yunho’s hand, and told him passionately and truthfully, “I didn’t. He was having a dream…when members of the crew have vivid dreams, I can’t help but be drawn in to them, especially if I’m sleeping.”  
  
“Oh,” was all Yunho could muster in a reply.  
  
“Shindong likes to say I am a neutered Joong, and it’s the truth…but when I’m asleep, I can’t help it. Reading minds is a sense to me…like hearing is for you. Could you tell yourself not to hear in your sleep? Believe me, I would never read Changmin’s mind while I am awake,” Jaejoong exclaimed, wanting Yunho to understand the truth.  
  
Yunho nodded his head, instantly knowing the truth of Jaejoong’s words. “I believe you…I was mostly joking. You aren’t neutered…Shindong shouldn’t say that.”  
  
“I am actually, but it’s the price of this life I share with you.”  
  
Yunho shook his head. “Jae, I don’t want you to…hey, do you know what Changmin’s dream was about?”  
  
“What?” Jaejoong asked, startled at the sudden question.  
  
Yunho’s eyes lit up as if a wonderful secret was about to be revealed. “That dream has always haunted him. He can never remember it. If you could tell him about-”  
  
“Stop, I only know it upsets him. I have no idea what it was about,” Jaejoong lied, reaching up to touch Yunho’s chest.  
  
Yunho looked into Jaejoong’s eyes, full of curiosity. “Isn’t that odd?”  
  
“Isn’t he waiting on you?” Jaejoong asked, letting go of Yunho and moving away from him.  
  
“Yes, he is.”  
  
Jaejoong sat back down. “You should go to him then.”  
  
*************************  
  
“I can’t believe you allow him to read my mind,” Changmin accused Yunho the instant the older man stepped out of his quarters.  
  
Yunho sighed. “He didn’t read your mind.”  
  
“The hell he didn’t!” Changmin retorted as he clenched his fists. Ryeowook and Kyuhyun, who had waiting on the other men to get dressed, stared wide-eyed at the father and son.  
  
“Calm yourself, he really didn’t…well, not like you think he did,” Yunho said, trying his best to placate his angry son.  
  
“My mind…I feel like my mind is muddled. What if he’s doing something to me?”  
  
Yunho reached out his hand and encircled Changmin’s arm softly. “He didn’t. I promise he wouldn’t hurt you.”  
  
“Yunho, are you sure?” Changmin asked as he reached up his hand to cover Yunho’s, when Yunho’s touch automatically calmed him.  
  
“Absolutely. I would never allow anybody to hurt you,” Yunho told him. “Let’s go watch security bang each other’s heads, okay.”  
  
“Okay,” Changmin agreed, blushing, slightly embarrassed at his outburst. Changmin just couldn’t help it. There was something about Jaejoong he didn’t trust.  
  
Ryeowook, who had been watching Changmin closely the entire time, spoke up, “You three go on ahead; there is something I need to do. I will meet you there.”  
  
“Ryeowook,” Kyuhyun asked, suddenly alarmed. “The only reason I am going is to be with you.”  
  
“I know that. I won’t be long…you go with them, and I will meet you there,” Ryeowook insisted as he disappeared into his quarters.  
  
Kyuhyun frowned, but followed Yunho and Changmin down the corridor. Kyuhyun couldn’t help but think everybody was acting strangely this morning. He wasn’t sure what he should say to help dissipate the awkwardness in the air. Changmin’s outburst was highly uncharacteristic.  
  
“Commander, I must apologize,” Changmin said suddenly, beating Kyuhyun to the punch.  
  
“Changmin, I won’t lie and pretend like I know what is going on…care to fill me in?” Commander Kyuhyun asked as he walked beside Changmin. Although he was Changmin’s senior officer, he was also his friend.  
  
Changmin, who walked down the corridor between Yunho and Kyuhyun, explained, “I had one of my dreams…and I believe I might have acted harshly. I accused Jae wrongfully.”  
  
“He did know about the dream, but only because he is a telepath. When he is asleep, he can not help but be drawn into dreams…it’s like asking us not to hear in our sleep,” Yunho quickly explained, repeating Jaejoong’s comparisons.  
  
Kyuhyun tensed. “He knows our dreams?”  
  
Changmin stopped walking and reached out and grabbed Yunho, relief flooding him when he realized the mystery of his dream might finally be answered. “We must go back. I have to know what the dream is about.”  
  
Yunho’s gave Changmin a look full of sadness. “I already asked…he doesn’t know what the dream was about. I guess he can only feel the emotions behind the dreams.”  
  
“Well…that wouldn’t be a very nice skill to have. Can you imagine the nightmares the crew of this ship has?” Kyuhyun said as he paled. Kyuhyun would not wish his dreams, or the emotions that accompanied his dreams, on anyone.  
  
“No, not a nice skill at all,” Yunho agreed as he was reminded of all the ship had lost.  
  
*********************************  
  
“You are, like, the worst mother ever!” Ryeowook proclaimed, as he used his medical override authority to storm into the captain’s quarters, once the other three men were out of sight.  
  
“Don’t say that!” Jaejoong screeched as he jumped up from the sofa in the living area of the quarters he shared with Yunho.  
  
Ryeowook pointed his fingers at Jaejoong disapprovingly. “Well, it’s true! You have muddled his mind again! Will you not be a happy until you have caused him irreparable brain damage?”  
  
“There are some things you need to know,” Jaejoong snapped, pointing his finger back at Ryeowook. “First off, I did not do it! He was having a dream, and I sensed it! I did not cause him to forget anything…he did that on his own. And the second thing you need to know is that I’m not his mother!”  
  
Ryeowook dropped his finger, and took a step back, shocked. “You are cold blooded!”  
  
The waves of repulsion coming off Ryeowook left Jaejoong confused. “What?”  
  
“To deny your own child…you really don’t like him, do you? Maybe you sent him back in time to get rid of him!”  
  
Jaejoong reached out and grabbed Ryeowook by the shoulders, realizing how he must have sounded. “No, you are wrong…that isn’t what I meant. Joongs don’t have mothers and fathers like humans do.”  
  
Now it was Ryeowook’s turn to look confused. “Huh?”  
  
“All Joongs are capable of giving birth…and of siring children. We don’t label our parents as mother or father. Joongs are just parents.”  
  
Ryeowook nodded his head in understanding. “That would explain why you don’t have a drop of motherly instinct.”  
  
“I beg your pardon!”  
  
“It’s the instinct to love and protect your children. It’s most commonly found in mothers, but sometimes males have it. Yunho has it in spades…you, however, appear to have none,” Ryeowook explained.  
  
Jaejoong’s eyes narrowed and reached into Ryeowook’s mind and saw the doctor’s dubious plan. “Changmin can call Yunho mommy, then.”  
  
Ryeowook frowned, knowing exactly what Jaejoong had done. “Jae! How can you continue to lie to him! He wants to know the truth of his birth so badly! Changmin and Yunho are not idiots; they aren’t going to do something to endanger Changmin’s life!”  
  
Jaejoong looked down at the shorter man with a steady, unflinching gaze. “Nothing you say will make me tell them. I will not risk Changmin’s life. When the time comes that I have to pay for my secrets…then I will pay for them.”  
  
Ryeowook huffed, turned, and walked toward the door. “It must be nice to be a great Joong who can dictate what others deserve to know.”  
  
“Ryeowook don’t leave!” Jaejoong said suddenly, making the doctor stop. “There is something else.”  
  
The doctor turned, folded his arms, and told Jaejoong in a cold voice. “Great, there is a third thing I need to know. I can’t wait to hear this one.”  
  
“Don’t be like that! You are the only person I can confide in.”  
  
“I am not! I am the only one you want to confide in. The captain would be-”  
  
Jaejoong held up his hand. “Stop that line of thought. It isn’t going to happen.”  
  
“What do you want to tell me? Kyuhyun is waiting for me.”  
  
Jaejoong looked hesitant and confessed, “I have felt a presence since the middle of the night. I think Changmin sensed it, too…and it may have triggered the dream.”  
  
Ryeowook eyes widened. “Let me guess…you didn’t tell the captain.”  
  
“No,” Jaejoong admitted guilty, and sat back down. “It’s not ominous…and once we pass through this part of space, it should go away.”  
  
“What could reach out into space? We are not even by a planet..?”  
  
Jaejoong looked squeamishly up at Ryeowook and admitted, “A Guardian.”  
  
“A Guardian of Time?” Ryeowook asked, then swallowed nervously, remembering what Jaejoong had told him about the powerful portals into time.  
  
Jaejoong nodded his head.  
  
Ryeowook went and sat down by Jaejoong on the sofa. “What does it want?”  
  
“Hopefully nothing, but it might want me.”  
  
“You?”  
  
“Guardians have little use for anything or anybody else but Joongs. I can’t sense what it wants, but what if it’s what awakened Changmin’s memory,” Jaejoong told Ryeowook nervously.  
  
“Memory? I thought you said Changmin had a dream?”  
  
“His dream is of a memory,” Jaejoong said, closing his eyes.  
  
“The dream is not new…I mean if it’s the one he had back in the academy. It drives him crazy, because he can’t remember it,” Ryeowook explained. “Changmin’s dreams weren’t nearly as bad or as often as Kyuhyun’s.”  
  
Jaejoong turned to Ryeowook and gave him a soft smile. “Are you always drawn to those who are haunted?”  
  
Ryeowook shook his head. “No, it isn’t like that. I think Changmin is more curious than anything else; plus, our friendship started with him helping me.”  
  
“He helped you?” Jaejoong asked him. He was immediately curious, but resisted the urge to enter Ryeowook’s mind.  
  
“When I started the academy, I was kinda an outcast. The place where I had been raised wasn’t exactly a big fan of Star Fleet, plus I was short and round…I was an easy target.”  
  
“They made fun of you?”  
  
“Yeah, and one day it was really bad, but Changmin stepped up and…” Ryeowook couldn’t help but smile at the memory. “Nobody messed with Jung Changmin, everybody thought he was Yunho’s little brother back then…and well, let’s just say the other cadets worshipped at the altar of Jung Yunho, the star of the academy.”  
  
“So, he protected you?” Jaejoong said, smiling.  
  
Ryeowook nodded his head. “Changmin at first, and then Yunho, too; let us just say the bullies were put in their place, and the academy became a much nicer place for me. I owe Changmin and Yunho a lot…” Ryeowook paused and gave Jaejoong a critical look. “So that’s why I don’t like you lying to them all the time!”  
  
“I do lie all the time,” Jaejoong admitted, full of guilt. “I lied to Yunho just today. I told him I could only feel the emotions of Changmin’s dream.”  
  
“You saw the dream?”  
  
“Little bits of it…through Changmin’s eyes. He was just a baby…he didn’t know what was going on. I just know he was amazed by a standing pool of water...the Guardian.”  
  
“So, you did send him back in time.”  
  
Jaejoong nodded his head. “Yes, I was there. There was somebody else there, too, but the dream was so blurry, I couldn’t really see them. In the dream, he was a child fascinated by sparkly moons, and the Guardian….I didn’t come into focus till the end.”  
  
“And…” Ryeowook prompted.  
  
Jaejoong looked away from Ryeowook. “I don’t know everything that was said in the dream, but I looked…I looked so broken.”  
  
“Broken,” Ryeowook repeated.  
  
“Yeah, like Yun…like I was dying.”  
  
  
*****************  
  
  
“What happened to him being a janitor?” Yoochun questioned with a fierce frown upon his face.  
  
Ensign Eunhyuk, who was sitting below them on the spectator benches in the gym, watching the members of security warming up, seconded, “Yeah, what happened to him being a janitor?”  
  
Commander Cho, who was sitting beside Commander Yoochun on the bleachers, shrugged his shoulders and answered, “Ryeowook insisted I put him in security, and I’m really easy right now.”  
  
“I don’t know if easy is the word I would use to describe you,” Yoochun grumbled as he turned to glare at Kyuhyun. “Horny as hell is more accurate.”  
  
Changmin, who was sitting beside Commander Cho, added, “It will only get worse. He has 283 days to go?”  
  
“You know my lack of a sex life isn’t really any of you two’s business,” Kyuhyun hissed, looking back and forth between the two men.  
  
“Look at Junsu!” Captain Yunho, who was sitting beside Changmin, said full of excitement, as he watched Siwon and Junsu wrestling with each other. “It makes my heart swell with pride. Just look at him!”  
  
Yoochun, who was still glaring at Kyuhyun, muttered, “I’d rather not.”  
  
“Quit being a grouch, Yoochun,” Yunho retorted. “Junsu is doing remarkable. Its like he was never hurt at all.” Junsu had been given the all clear by Dr. Cho weeks ago, but he had made a point of working out with security. Junsu had always been very athletic, and he was eager to get back to top form.  
  
Yoochun bent forward and looked in Yunho’s direction. “I was talking about the prince.”  
  
Yunho bent forward, matching Yoochun’s pose. “Prince Siwon is a member of our crew now, and he is doing a commendable job. He should have never been assigned to janitorial duties to begin with.”  
  
“Then, that is your own fault,” Changmin pointed out. “You should keep a better eye on your insanely jealous second–in-command.”  
  
Kyuhyun nudged Changmin with his elbow and gave him a warning look. “Captain, I apologized. It was a momentary lapse in judgment. It won’t happen again. No need to keep an eye on me.”  
  
“I don’t know why everybody is so jealous of him. So what if he’s a prince? I expect better of my senior officers. Petty jealousy is beneath you,” Yunho chastised.  
  
“I am not jealous,” Changmin quickly pointed out.  
  
Yoochun smiled devilishly at the captain, recalling a memory that bothered the captain immensely. “Yunho, of course you would say that; you are the only person on this ship who is getting his sexual needs fulfilled by a very gifted, double-”  
  
“Kyuhyun, trade me places,” Yunho barked, standing up. Kyuhyun quickly got up and switched places with the captain. Yunho grabbed Yoochun’s ear and put his mouth up to it and whispered, “Don’t think I won’t have your memory erased.”  
  
Yoochun winked at Yunho. “I don’t know what memory you are talking about.”  
  
Yunho glared and threatened, “The hell you don’t! You don’t even have the decency to look ashamed!”  
  
Changmin ignored the two bickering, old friends, as Kyuhyun rolled his eyes and said, “Siwon is actually working out quite well in security, and he seems to have a calming affect on Kangin.”  
  
Changmin nodded his head. “It does seem to have worked out well.”  
  
“I guess after all that time on the planet, Ryeowook knew it would work out this way,” Kyuhyun said with a goofy grin on his face that was reserved for thoughts of Dr. Cho.  
  
“Whatever,” Eunhyuk griped from below them. “He was totally playing matchmaker. Ryeowook’s back to his old, diehard romantic ways.”  
  
Kyuhyun’s eyes became starry. “How I wish that was true.”  
  
“Matchmaking? Who is he playing matchmaker for?” Yoochun asked, ceasing to torture the captain.  
  
“Siwon and Sungmin,” Donghae, who was sitting beside Eunhyuk, happily supplied.  
  
“Does Siwon…is he? Open to that?” Yunho carefully asked. “He was, after all, going to marry a woman.”  
  
“It’s been a year; people are going to find they are less heterosexual with every passing day,” Yoochun pointed out.  
  
“Not all of us,” Eunhyuk protested.  
  
Changmin nodded his head in agreement. “True. I am not the least bit attracted to men-”  
  
“Or anyone else for that matter.” Kyuhyun pointed out.  
  
“True,” Changmin conceded.  
  
“Well, I’m still heterosexual, and I’m not desperate yet,” Donghae said from beside Eunhyuk.  
  
“Me either,” Eunhyuk agreed, and looked up at Yoochun with a devious smile. “Not Junsu either. He’s as straight as an arrow.”  
  
“When I need a lesson on unwavering heterosexuality, I’ll ask for it,” Yoochun snapped back at Eunhyuk, and added cruelly, “And I won’t be asking somebody who’s last liaison was with a frog person.”  
  
Donghae wrapped an arm around Eunhyuk as his friend turned red, and said in defense of his friend, “Commander, to be fair, it was a female frog person.”  
  
*****************  
  
“Oh, look, Eunhyuk’s ears are all red,” Heechul, who was wearing a pink jumpsuit, told Junsu when the other man got up from the mat where he had been having a friendly wrestling match with Siwon.  
  
Junsu turned and looked at the bleachers where his friend was sitting. “I wonder why.”  
  
Heechul slithered up to Junsu, and wrapped an arm around his waist. “That nasty old Yoochun has been barely hiding his smoldering rage at watching you and Siwon roll around...fighting for topping rights.”  
  
“You are disgusting! Wrestling is a highly respected sport!” Junsu blabbered, shocked at Heechul’s choice of words.  
  
“Whatever,” Heechul said, eyeing Siwon, who was gulping down a bottle of water. “It looks like hot foreplay to me. Speaking of that…” Heechul let go of Junsu and walked over to Siwon, “I have always been interested in wresting…what do you say about throwing me down on the floor and having your way with me…oops, I mean giving me some lessons. We can practice in my bedroom.”  
  
Siwon eyes widened, and he looked around for a quick exit, when Sungmin walked up, shaking his head at Heechul. “When I agreed to let you act as our water boy, I did not give you permission to harass members of security.”  
  
“Lieutenant Lee, what if I want to expand my horizons! What if I want to become more athletic…I like to sweat,” Heechul told Sungmin, but was leering at Siwon.  
  
“Then go run a lap!” Sungmin told Heechul, not the least bit swayed.  
  
Junsu walked away from their squabbling and towards Eunhyuk. Was Heechul right? He probably was…he might be crazy, but he was more observant than anybody Junsu had ever known. “Eunhyuk, why are you so red?”  
  
Eunhyuk turned around quickly when he heard Junsu, and reached up for his ears. “No, reason,” Eunhyuk quickly sputtered out. He wanted the subject of his frog affair over with already.  
  
“Commander Yoochun was being rude to him, and brought up the unfortunate amphibian encounter,” Changmin quickly answered.  
  
Yoochun smiled uneasily at Junsu, as the other man looked back at him unhappily.  
  
Yunho watched Yoochun and Junsu, while he patted Changmin on the back knowingly. Changmin’s innocent factual statements didn’t fool Yunho in the least. “Junsu, you were doing so great out there,” Yunho said proudly, ending the uncomfortable silence.  
  
“Thank you, Captain! Siwon is a great sparring partner,” Junsu replied, turning his glare away from Yoochun to smile happily at the captain.  
  
“I think Sungmin and Siwon should wrestle together next,” Kyuhyun quickly added, as he watched the two of them together with a happy smile.  
  
Everybody but Changmin turned and looked at Kyuhyun, surprised at his statement. “You do?” Donghae said, barely finding his tongue.  
  
“Yes, I do.”  
  
“He also hopes they become totally enamored with each other,” Changmin added.  
  
“Yes, I do.”  
  
“You know wrestling is not foreplay! It’s a sport; it’s an ancient, honored sport!” Junsu sputtered, suddenly defensive.  
  
“Yes, it is. You are absolutely correct,” Yunho told Junsu, attempting to calm the younger man.  
  
“Ensign, calm down. I am not suggesting anything on your behalf…I am just wishfully thinking,” Commander Cho explained.  
  
“Do I even want to know what you are being wishful about?” Ryeowook asked as he suddenly appeared beside Junsu.  
  
“He is wishing that Sungmin and Siwon become entangled in a love affair in the hopes that you will become more lenient-”  
  
Yunho’s insignia chirped to life, ending Changmin’s explanation. Yunho hit the insignia. “Captain here.”  
  
Lieutenant Yesung’s voice was soon heard, “Captain, we have picked up a distress call from the Planet Eternity.”  
  
Yunho stood up instantly and was off the bleachers and heading for the bridge before the next words were out of his mouth. “Princess Claudia’s planet - I will be on the bridge in due haste.”  
  
“Sir, in the distress call…the princess is begging for a Joong’s assistance,” Yesung’s voice continued, causing Yunho to turn and cast a questioning glace toward Commander Cho, who had followed him along with Changmin, Yoochun, Eunhyuk, Junsu, and Ryeowook.  
  
“I will have Jae meet us on the bridge. Also, have Shindong report to the bridge,” Yunho ordered aloud to Yesung, and then added mentally to Jaejoong,  _“Please meet me on the bridge. The Planet Eternity is need of your assistance.”_


	2. Chapter 2

Yunho entered the bridge with his senior officers close behind him. Lieutenant Yesung got up immediately, and relinquished the captain’s chair to Yunho. Ensigns Junsu and Eunhyuk took up their positions at the helm, while Changmin resumed his position at the science station.  
  
“Play the distress call,” Yunho ordered as he took his seat in the Captain’s Chair, while Commander Cho took his seat beside him.  
  
The large screen at the front of the bridge came to life, showing a blurry image of a distressed looking Princess Claudia. She appeared on the screen with tousled hair, and her entire appearance in disarray. Yunho winced slightly in sympathy, seeing the young princess look so troubled. Princess Claudia was in her teens, and was usually dressed impeccably. The young Princess had a calm reserved manner that people decades older rarely achieved.  
  
Yunho and the crew listened as the princess pleaded for assistance in her message. “This is Princess Claudia of the world Eternity. I beg of any Joong that hears this message to please come to the aid of my people. The Time Keeper has grown troubled, and as you know the voice of my people give it no solace. Only the great Joongs of this galaxy can calm it. Our world trembles, our skies rumble, our oceans churn dangerously, and the space around us is filled with deadly electricity. I know you are a much maligned race, that has suffered so much at the hands of lesser beings, but I beseech you in our time of need. Please, I beg of you…please come soothe the Time Keeper before our world is lost.”  
  
The message ended, and Yunho asked, “The Time Keeper?”  
  
“They never mentioned anything about a Time Keeper when we were there before,” Commander Cho pointed out.  
  
Changmin, who was at the science station, added, “Although they were very thankful for our rescue of the princess, they were very strict on where we could and where we couldn’t go while we were on the planet.”  
  
“Don’t forget those strange monks that were always lurking around in their white robes, looking like they couldn’t wait to get rid of us. Maybe the Time Keeper was what they were so protective of,” Yoochun offered from the back of the bridge, where he stood with an uncomfortable looking Dr. Cho.  
  
“They were a primitive race, dependent on other races for any of their advanced technology,” Changmin pointed out.  
  
“Your point?” Yunho asked as Shindong and Jaejoong arrived on the bridge.  
  
“Primitive races often blame natural disasters on mythical beings. In this instance the people of Eternity are no doubt blaming a natural occurrence on this mythical Time Keeper,” Changmin explained.  
  
“Except the Time Keeper is real and more than capable of causing disasters…or even destroying a planet,” Shindong explained as he moved to stand in front of the captain.  
  
“Explain,” Yunho ordered as Jaejoong sat down beside him in the counselor’s chair, suddenly looking very pale.  
  
“The Time Keeper of Eternity is like…a time machine, but it’s alive,” Shindong explained to them.  
  
Yunho turned to face Jaejoong, who was sitting beside him, and asked, “Why would they be requesting a Joong?”  
  
Jaejoong swallowed nervously, but before he could reply Shindong answered for him. “Joongs are the only beings that Time Keepers respond to. The people of Eternity can worship the Time Keeper all they want, but they are nothing to it. The Time Keepers only care about Joongs, and will only do what a Joong asks. It’s said that Joongs can travel to anytime in history through the Time Keeper…and it’s also rumored that the only way to get to the Joong’s home planet is through the Time Keeper.”  
  
Yunho’s eyes never left Jaejoong as Shindong explained. A very unpleasant thought was taking root in Yunho’s mind. He held his tongue regarding his theory and instead asked Jaejoong, “Is this true?”  
  
Jaejoong nodded his head as he felt the bridge crews suspicions of him grow. Instead of killing their suspicions with a gentle nudging of their minds, he allowed them to grow.  
  
“Will you help the people of Eternity?” Yunho asked his lover, suddenly feeling extremely uneasy.  
  
“Of course,” Jaejoong agreed, nodding his head more fervently.  
  
“Plot a course for Eternity at maximum warp,” Yunho ordered.  
  
“Yes, Sir,” Ensigns Junsu and Eunhyuk both replied instantly, following the captain’s orders.  
  
“Maximum warp,” Yoochun muttered under his breath. He was immediately concerned for his poor, darling engines, and headed for the lift. He was eager to return to engineering where he could watch them more closely. Maximum warp always put such a strain on them.  
  
Changmin, whose intelligent eyes were glued to Jaejoong, asked the question that everybody else on the bridge was thinking. “Can a Joong send others back in time?”  
  
Jaejoong closed his eyes, the memory of Changmin’s dream all too fresh in his mind. “Yes, if the Guardian…if the Time Keeper agrees.”  
  
“Jae, did you-” Yunho began.  
  
“I don’t know!” Jaejoong stood up and exclaimed, lying to them all. After seeing Changmin’s dream he knew for certain he had sent Changmin back, but he dare not admit this. “The future is uncertain…and you shouldn’t know it. Knowing the future can be very dangerous and it can have dire consequences. The Guardian…that’s what the Joongs call the Time Keeper…the Guardians of Time are not easily swayed. They know the past, present, and future. I mean if I sent a young Changmin back in time…the Guardian must have agreed to it,” Jaejoong quickly explained.  
  
“So you couldn’t just send him back in time…to get him out of the way…could you?” Junsu asked nervously. It was well-known aboard the ship that the captain’s lover and captain’s son were not close.  
  
Shindong snorted. “I have always heard that Time Keepers were the pets of Joongs, craving whatever attention a Joong could spare them. He could probably get it to do anything he asked of it.”  
  
Jaejoong’s eyes flashed dangerously at Shindong. “I wouldn’t though, and you greatly underestimate the Guardian if you think anybody controls it. It is not a pet! Calling it a time machine is a gross understatement…it is so much more.”  
  
Shindong swallowed anxiously, remembering who he was antagonizing, and added quickly, “Has anybody considered this might be a trap?”  
  
“A trap?” Commander Cho repeated, instantly on guard.  
  
Shindong nodded his head, and quickly explained. “ZhouMi is a real conniving bastard, and this might be his way of getting a hold of Jae again. He can’t be pleased that Jae escaped him.”  
  
 _“It isn’t,”_  Jaejoong answered in a softer voice. “I can feel the Guardian.”  
  
 _“You can feel it?”_ Yunho asked telepathically.  
  
 _“Yes.”_  
  
 _“For how long?”_  
  
 _“Since during the night.”_  
  
 _“You didn’t think I might need to know this?”_  
  
 _“No, I can sense a great many things, and you need not be privy to all of them.”_  
  
Yunho furrowed his eyebrows, and turned away from Jaejoong and ordered, “Open a hailing frequency to Eternity.”  
  
“Yes, Sir,” Eunhyuk replied. The screen in front of the bridge came alive and the disheveled teenage princess appeared.  
  
Yunho stood up. “Hello, Princess.”  
  
“Captain Yunho,” the princess replied, her dark expression lifting slightly at seeing her past savior. “It’s so good to see you. If I could call on your assistance…I need to start evacuating the people of Eternity, and as you know, we have no crafts capable of space flight.”  
  
“Don’t worry. The Expectations will soon be there, and I will provide you with the help you require,” Yunho assured her.  
  
“I am grateful for any help you can provide my planet, but what we really need is a Joong, but alas our cries for help play on death ears,” Princess Claudia informed him.  
  
Yunho, who was not willing to announce over subspace that he had a Joong aboard his ship, just smiled and reassured her. “The Expectations will be there soon. It will be alright, you have to trust me.”  
  
She smiled at him, remembering her rescue almost a year ago. “I do…completely.”  
  
“Expectations out,” Yunho said, ending the connection. Then he turned to his crew. “When we arrive at Eternity only Jae and I will be going down to the planet.”  
  
Changmin frowned and immediately protested. “Captain-”  
  
“Lieutenant,” Yunho said in a voice tolerating no objections. “This is not open to debate.”  
  
***************  
  
Yunho and Jaejoong materialized inside the Royal Palace of Eternity, Princess Claudia immediately greeted them with her main advisor at her side. “Captain, we must start the evacuations as soon as possible. I am afraid for my people.”  
  
Yunho and Jaejoong turned to face her. “Princess, that might not be necessary.”  
  
“Not necessary?” she questioned. “How is that-”  
  
She was interrupted as Jaejoong walked away from them and toward a doorway that was guarded by two well-armed men. “We don’t have time for novelties or introductions.”  
  
“Stop, that path is forbidden,” Princess Claudia’s main advisor ordered as Jaejoong approached the doorway.  
  
Jaejoong did not bother acknowledging the advisor as the faces of the guards at the doorway glazed over in confusion, and allowed Jaejoong to pass without objection. “Yunho, follow me. We don’t have time for this.”  
  
Yunho took off after Jaejoong, eager to stop the destruction. Princess Claudia shared a concerned look with her advisor, and then they both started to follow them. “Captain, if you continue to follow that path…you will…please don’t.”  
  
The advisor added, “Captain, only the monks and the members of the royal family of Eternity are allowed to follow that path. It is forbidden.”  
  
Jaejoong did stop now, and turned to face the princess and the advisor. His face held nothing but scorn as he walked back and grabbed Yunho’s hand. “Ignore them, they speak of rules that their ancestors conjured up years ago in order to place false importance on themselves. Their beloved Time Keeper cares nothing for them. Royal family or rural farmer… it cares not for the people of Eternity.”  
  
“You dare speak for the Time Keeper,” the advisor chastised as if Jaejoong had committed an unspeakable sin.  
  
Princess Claudia’s eyes took on the light of understanding as she eyed Jaejoong closely, and took in his beauty. “He’s a Joong. Isn’t he?”  
  
Jaejoong did not bother to reply to her, as he continued on his way with his hand tightly holding on to Yunho’s. Yunho turned back and nodded his head at Princess Claudia, and then allowed Jaejoong to drag him through the palace and toward the Guardian of Time. Yunho watched as the guards, who were positioned to guard the path to the Time Keeper, allowed them to pass without incident.  
  
 _“Are you manipulating the guards?”_ Yunho asked telepathically as Jaejoong led him out of the palace. The land surrounding the Royal Palace of Eternity was mountainous.  
  
Jaejoong hurried down a stone path. _“Yes. Would you rather they fight us? I also coerced the young princess and her advisor into not following us, or sending others to follow us. Do you disapprove?”_  
  
 _“No, I was just curious.”_  
  
Jaejoong stopped suddenly as they approached another man in a white robe.  _“He has the coordinates for the Guardian in his head. It’s still a long walk.”_  
  
Yunho tapped his insignia. “Lieutenant Donghae, beam us to the coordinates that Jae gives you.”  
  
“Yes, Sir,” came the eager voice of the Lieutenant.  
  
“38°51′48″N 104°47′31″W,” Jaejoong told him, and they instantly disappeared inside the Expectations’ transporter beams.  
  
Yunho materialized in the rocky basin of a mountain range, he stood on a rock floor free of any kind of vegetation. Mountains surrounded him on either side. He looked up and saw the last rudiments of the sunlight breaking through stormy clouds that rolled through the skies. Soft sprinkles of rain landed on him as Yunho surveyed the surrounding area. Long walk…indeed this would have been a very long walk.  
  
Jaejoong’s hand tightened around Yunho’s, and he felt Jaejoong gently pull him toward what appeared to be a circular stone monument that sat in the center of the mountain’s basin. The inside of the monument was made up of a perfectly blue liquid that hung in place, filling the middle of the monument as if gravity did not exist. Yunho felt a sense of awe fill him. This was not some mere stone monument…this was something else. He couldn’t explain it, but as they moved closer his sense of amazement only grew. He couldn’t help but ask, “What is it?”  
  
A loud booming voice answered, “I am known by countless names. In this galaxy I am known as the Guardian of Time, and the Time Keeper, but in your galaxy I am known as the Guardian of Forever.”  
  
“My galaxy?” Yunho repeated, amazed. He had never heard of such a thing occupying his galaxy.  
  
“Yes, I reach throughout the universe and all of time,” the Guardian answered.  
  
“Are you a living being, or are you a machine?” Yunho asked, his curiosity growing by leaps and bounds.  
  
“I am both, and I am neither.”  
  
“Why are you tormenting the people of this planet?” Jaejoong demanded, interrupting Yunho’s discussion with the Guardian to get straight to the point. “You must cease now.”  
  
“As you wish,” the Guardian answered, and the skies above them cleared instantly, the winds came to a halt, the ground grew steady, and peace was returned to the Planet Eternity. “You of the Royal House of Joong, I wished to see you and your bondmate.”  
  
Jaejoong’s eyes narrowed, full of suspicion. “Guardians have never had any use for the mates of Joongs, when we bond outside of our species.”  
  
“You presume too much. You have read the history of your people through only a millennium, and drawn false conclusions based on that small passage of time.”  
  
“Small passage of time,” Yunho repeated in disbelief. What was this being that a millennium was nothing but a small passage of time to it? Also Jae was some kind of Joong royalty? What else had Jaejoong not told him, Yunho wondered.  
  
“What do you want of us?” Jaejoong asked. Would the Guardian give away his secrets? Or perhaps it was going to give him a clue as to what the future might hold. Jaejoong wished he was alone, so he could question the Guardian regarding the future…maybe he could stop it all from happening.  
  
The blue liquid inside the guardian swirled and the guardian replied, “I want to show you how wisely you have chosen. For centuries the Joong speak of true love as the ultimate goal in life, and yet they fool themselves into thinking the bond they create themselves is that timeless bond that they all yearn for.”  
  
Yunho watched as Jaejoong brightened instantly and exclaimed, “You said I chose wisely…are you saying Yunho and I have a timeless bond?”  
  
“Yes, it wasn’t formed in this lifetime alone.”  
  
Jaejoong pulled on Yunho in his eagerness, as he moved closer to the Guardian of Time. “This explains everything! Everything! Why everything has been so easy. It explains…everything.”  
  
“Yes,” the guardian confirmed.  
  
Yunho let go of Jaejoong’s hand and felt immediately suspicious of his mate. “Explains what? I thought all Joongs mated for life. Don’t you always preach true love and the power of it? I thought all Joongs experienced that kind of love when they took a bondmate.”  
  
“True love and timeless love are two different things,” Jaejoong quickly explained. “When a Joong takes a mate the love is always true, but timeless love-” Jaejoong trailed off, his eyes shining brightly.  
  
“Timeless love is forever. Timeless love is two souls that always find their way back to each other in every life,” the guardian finished for Jaejoong.  
  
“In every life…as in past lives,” Yunho questioned skeptically. Yunho had never thought that souls were reborn. Yunho believed that you only had one life to live.  
  
“Even if we are dealt a cruel hand in this life…then we will get a second chance in the next,” Jaejoong whispered, suddenly somber as the memory of Changmin’s dream returned to him.  
  
Yunho took a step back from the guardian and from Jaejoong. “I’m kinda fond of this life, thank you very much.”  
  
“Jung Yunho, you have lived many lives, and you will continue to live many more. You will know devastating disappointment, magnificent triumphs, and tedious mediocrity. In all these lives you will encounter Jaejoong’s soul in one form or another. Your encounters will either span the whole of your life, or they will last for only a moment, but they will always resonate with you in every life you live.”  
  
Yunho turned to Jaejoong, confused. “Jaejoong?”  
  
Jaejoong, who was wearing a dazzling smile, quickly answered, “It’s my formal Joong name.” Jaejoong walked closer to Yunho and took his hand again, and brought it up to his lips and kissed it. “Yunho, do you realize the importance of what we are being told? How great this is? We have a timeless love.”  
  
Yunho frowned, refusing to be drawn into Jaejoong’s excitement. He looked away from Jaejoong, and turned to face the guardian and accused, “So you tortured the people of this planet…so you could tell us this?”  
  
“No,” the guardian answered in a loud voice that echoed throughout the mountain range; as the blue liquids inside the guardian swirled to life. “I did it, so I could show you.” Before either Yunho or Jaejoong could respond they were sucked inside the endless blue abyss that was the Guardian.  
  
*********************  
  
Yunho’s eyes flew open to find that he was laying flat on his back, and looking directly up at the sky. Yunho reached up, and shielded his eyes from the brightness of the sun that shined down upon him. The last memory Yunho had was of being sucked into the Guardian. Traveling through the Guardian had felt like drowning in the ocean, except he did not lack for air. “Show you,” Yunho repeated the Guardian’s words, and sat up quickly. The Guardian had been telling them about past lives they had shared...had the Guardian transported Yunho back into a past life?  
  
He found himself in the middle of a bright summer’s day in a very green, grassy meadow with wildflowers all around him. He did not recognize the meadow or any of the wildflowers that filled it. He looked down at his clothing that appeared to be nothing more than oversized rags that were hanging off of him. A short distance away, he saw a black horse that was saddled, grazing with its reigns hanging loosely off it. Yunho blinked, completely taken aback when he realized the black horse had a horn on its head…it was a unicorn. “A unicorn…” Yunho trailed off. Was he even on Earth? No, of course not if…there were unicorns. Unicorns were mythical creatures from Earth’s history, and he did not recall any other planet having such animals. Where was he? Was this real, or was this some kind of an illusion? Yunho wondered all these questions as he stared at the unicorn. The unicorn picked its head up from its grazing to stare back at him.  
  
Yunho had the distinct feeling that the unicorn knew he was an imposter. A horrible thought occurred to Yunho. The Guardian had said it was going to show the past lives he had shared with Jae…Jae was a Joong in his current life…had he been a unicorn in this life? Was it possible? Yunho cringed and scratched his head uncomfortably, and explained to the unicorn, “I really love animals…but not like…you know…love them.”  
  
The unicorn grunted at him dismissively, and went back to grazing. Before Yunho had time to think about his predicament he heard a rustling in the grass. Yunho quickly turned around, and the sight he took in had his mouth dropping open in awe. It was Jaejoong…but it wasn’t. Yunho watched as a great white stallion raced toward him and upon its back rode Jaejoong. Where Yunho wore nothing but rags, Jaejoong was decked out in the most lavish clothing of red and gold that Yunho had ever seen. Yunho watched as Jaejoong stopped the stallion, and gracefully dismounted. Jaejoong walked toward him with a huge, friendly smile. Yunho did not move from his spot on the ground as he looked up at Jaejoong in awe. Jaejoong had long straw colored hair that was tied in a large loose braid with gold ribbons, and Jae’s eyes were a beautiful light blue.  
  
Yunho watched as Jaejoong took in his appearance, and shook his head disapprovingly. “Yunho, I had the tailors make you such nice clothes, and still you wear this rubbish.”  
  
Yunho looked back down to the rags he wore, and he had to agree rubbish was a proper word for them. “What,” Yunho asked as his mind caught up with him. “Tailors?”  
  
“Yes, Yunho…you remember the nice gentlemen that took your measurements, and presented you with all the nice clothes worthy of a comrade of mine,” Jaejoong explained as he patted Yunho’s head gently.  
  
Yunho’s brows furrowed and looked up to Jaejoong. There was something so warm about Jaejoong…like he emanated warmth. Yunho could not help but feel dazzled by the man. Jaejoong had always been extremely beautiful, but now it was like he sparkled with beauty. “Jae…a comrade of yours?”  
  
“Yunho,” Jaejoong answered softly as if Yunho’s words had shocked him, but at the same time pleased him greatly. “Such informal speech from you. Of course you are my comrade, whatever else would you be?”  
  
The realization finally hit Yunho that this Jaejoong was not his Jaejoong. He had somehow replaced the Yunho that belonged to this reality, but this Jaejoong belonged to this reality.  
  
“Well come to think of it, I suppose calling you my comrade isn’t accurate. Actually you would be my subject, my servant…my precious pet.”  
  
Although Yunho was more than puzzled by the circumstances he found himself in, the captain, the man that he was, bristled at being called a pet. He did not like that description at all. His eyes instantly narrowed as he looked up at the beautiful man, and took notice of the crown that adorned his head. Jaejoong was royalty in this reality, and Yunho was his precious pet? Well the Guardian couldn’t return him to his own reality fast enough for his taste. The thought of being some man’s pet - even Jaejoong’s - was not a thought that settled well with him.  
  
Jaejoong took in the grim expression, and his smile turned to pure amusement. The hand that had been patting Yunho’s head now ruffled his hair. “I see fire in those eyes; you know how much I treasure-”  
  
“Your Majesty,” a familiar voice called out, interrupting them.  
  
Yunho looked past Jaejoong to eye…Heechul. It was Heechul, but he was much older than the Heechul that occupied Yunho’s reality. It was definitely Heechul though. Heechul was also decked out in ridiculous looking clothing, and he sat upon a brown steed. Heechul was surrounded on both sides by what appeared to be royal guards on horseback.  
  
“What?” Jaejoong snapped, flinging himself around to face Heechul. Jaejoong’s mood had completely changed.  
  
“The Queen requests your presence,” Heechul explained calmly as he moved his horse forward toward Jaejoong.  
  
Yunho had little time to take in Heechul’s statement before he felt a gust of cold wind whirling around him. Yunho strained his eyes trying to see through the gust of cold air that hung in the air leaving a thick fog. Yunho rubbed his bare arms that were shivering now, the thick air around him was freezing. The fog cleared, and Yunho quickly realized the coldness was coming from Jaejoong. Jaejoong was standing in front of him as a different man. Jaejoong, who had been as bright as the sun earlier, had completely changed. The straw colored hair was now jet black, and the warm light blue eyes were now a dark, angry blue…almost black. Yunho watched as Jaejoong flung himself away from Yunho, and towards his white stallion. “I hate that fucking bitch,” Jaejoong cursed, all his earlier warmth gone.  
  
Heechul rolled his eyes, and replied calmly as if the sudden change was completely natural. “Yes, your majesty, but you do have a royal duty.”  
  
Jaejoong grabbed the reigns to his stallion, while glaring at Heechul the whole time. “I know my royal duty! I don’t need you to remind me! I have had it preached to me since the moment I was born! I know I have to provide the kingdom with an heir. I know what I have to do. I have always known. If I was certain she would die in childbirth, then maybe even I could mange to get it up for her!”  
  
Yunho watched as Jaejoong swiftly mounted the white stallion and rode off hastily, while the royal guards hurried to follow him. The coldness in the air left with Jaejoong. Yunho couldn’t believe the change in the man. One moment he had been pure warmth, and the next he had been ice cold.  
  
“One must cling to hope, Your Majesty,” Heechul muttered under his breath as if he was long accustomed to Jaejoong’s outbursts.  
  
Yunho’s eyes followed Jaejoong as the man raced off. Where the hell was he, Yunho wondered. How could Jaejoong just change his appearance like that? Not to mention the change in the weather. Yunho knew from his talks with Jaejoong that Joongs could change their appearances, but from his understanding it took much longer than an instant. Also if Jaejoong was still a Joong wouldn’t he have been able to tell that Yunho…wasn’t his Yunho? “Precious Pet,” Yunho grumbled, still offended on the behalf of his alternate self.  
  
Heechul, who had not left, looked down at Yunho from his perch on his horse, and gave him a small smile. “Be careful, young peasant. The queen is as vindictive as she is round. His Majesty does you no favors by showing you such warmth.”  
  
Yunho looked up quickly to look at the older man, who was smiling kindly down at him. Yunho knew he was giving him a friendly warning. Yunho opened his mouth to question this older version of Heechul, but before he could utter a word he found himself sucked back into the endless blue depths of the Guardian.  
  
******************************  
  
It was cold.  
  
Jaejoong attempted to clear his sluggish mind after the familiar journey through the Guardian, but he could only sense the cold. There was a bitter chill in the air, reminding him of a cold winter’s day.  
  
Jaejoong remembered the Guardian’s parting words before he and Yunho had been swept away. Jaejoong was immensely pleased; it was a great honor the Guardian had bestowed upon them. Their love was an old love…a timeless love, a wondrous love that the Guardian of Time approved of. Of course Jaejoong had always suspected this, since the moment when he had first laid eyes upon their son. No new feeble love could ever produce a Joong child.  
  
Joong children were a rarity among all Joongs, and hybrid Joongs were all but unheard of. Most pure-blooded Joong couples lived and died without their coupling ever bearing the fruit of a child. When a Joong couple proved to be fruitful, they proved to be very fruitful. Jaejoong himself had ten other siblings.  
  
That his and Yunho’s souls had touched each other’s lives through countless lifetimes filled Jaejoong with immeasurable joy. This is why he had never given into torture or pain, when ZhouMi had tried to break him. A Joong could create a bond with anybody, make anybody love them…but some love was not meant to be. Countless Joongs throughout history had shamefully bonded with their tormenters in order to escape a life of pain.  
  
The love he shared with Yunho was meant to be. It was destiny. Jaejoong could imagine no greater gift than being able to witness the lives he had shared with Yunho. Jaejoong had heard stories of the Guardian providing such glimpses, but the accuracy of those accounts had always seemed more myth than fact to him. How exactly would the Guardian show them, Jaejoong wondered?  
  
Jaejoong’s mind adapted to his new surroundings as his other senses began to awaken, and he realized he was kneeling and clinging to something. The cold still surrounded him, and he felt his face covered in tears, freezing tears. His damp, icy eyes flew open, and he realized he had his arms wrapped around a pair of legs. He moved his face away from the legs that it had been buried in. There was snow all around him and the bright reflection of the sun off the snow left him blinded.  
  
His telepathic mind finally awakened, and he was drenched in sadness, an all consuming sadness. A searing pain shot through his soul.  
  
“Jae, please…just please let me go,” a familiar voice pleaded.  
  
Jaejoong opened his eyes instantly, squinting against the sunlight to look up at Yunho. He had never seen Yunho look…so broken. “Yunho?”  
  
Jaejoong watched at a complete loss as Yunho reached down and gently pulled him to his feet. “Jae, you are covered in snow. Go back inside. It’s too cold.”  
  
This wasn’t his Yunho…his Yunho didn’t hurt like this. His Yunho wasn’t this mess of a man standing in front of him. Jaejoong looked at Yunho horrified as his mind started to unlock this Yunho’s secrets. This Yunho was leaving his Jaejoong…he thought he was being noble, but it was killing him. This Yunho had been given a terrible choice, and his inability to disobey an unyielding father had led him to this point in time. Jaejoong felt Yunho’s sorrow of watching his lover suffer at his own hands, the pain of losing the one he loved, and the weight of his own self-hatred. This Yunho’s anguish was so intense that it left Jaejoong weak, and he found gravity pulling him back to the snowy ground.  
  
“Jae, don’t do this. Please. You know…you know you will always be important to me. I can’t imagine my life without you in it. This doesn’t mean I don’t care about you,” Yunho pleaded. “I will always care about you.”  
  
“Always care,” Jaejoong repeated the lie. This Yunho did not only care about his Jaejoong, he also loved him… loved him with a great intensity and with every fiber of his being. This Yunho was throwing away a great love for his family…for his father…for public opinion…because he was afraid.  
  
Jaejoong’s sharp mind focused, and he pushed Yunho’s pain away…it clouded everything. Once Jaejoong’s feelings were his own he immediately sided with his counterpart in this reality. This Yunho was a fool. Only a fool would ever toss away somebody who he loved so much. Jaejoong peered through Yunho’s memories and knew that Yunho’s Jaejoong loved him just as intensely, if not more.  
  
“Jae, I have to go. You need to get back inside and get warm. I don’t want you to get sick,” Yunho told him softly as he tried to step away.  
  
Jaejoong reached out and grabbed the man’s legs, and looked up at him full of disdain. “You are a coward.”  
  
Jaejoong watched in satisfaction as Yunho flinched at the truthfulness of Jaejoong’s accusation. Jaejoong did not suffer fools easily. He did feel for the man, but this pain was so needless. Even if this Yunho thought he had no choice…it was all so stupid.  
  
“Maybe, but we are just friends now….only friends….good friends,” Yunho told him as he jerked his leg free of Jaejoong and walked away.  
  
Jaejoong fell forward into the snow as Yunho broke away from him. Jaejoong lifted his head from the snow, and watched the man hurry away. Jaejoong knew that Yunho hurried because he didn’t trust himself. Yunho didn’t trust himself to be left in Jaejoong’s presence any longer. Jaejoong knew Yunho was fighting against the urge to run back to Jaejoong, to pull him up out of the snow, and wrap his arms around him…arms that would never let him go. Jaejoong also knew that Yunho would not do it. Jaejoong knew that Yunho might fear diverting from his well thought out plan, but he would not sway from it. This Yunho was too prideful. “You will regret this,” Jaejoong promised, because casting such a love aside only came with great consequences.  
  
Jaejoong watched as Yunho paused for a second, knowing the truth of Jaejoong’s words, but instead of turning back he just kept walking away. Jaejoong was about to push himself up out of the snow, when he felt the familiar tug of the Guardian pulling him away.


	3. Chapter 3

It felt nice.  
  
Very nice. Yunho was pleasantly aroused, and his mind was having difficulty focusing as a pair of soft, wet lips trailed down his back. Yunho smiled into the pillow his face was resting against. This was a very nice way to wake up. Jaejoong was always spoiling him, Yunho thought.  
  
When a slick finger slipped inside him, Yunho immediately tensed. Yunho fought against the urge to jerk away, this was the fist time that Jaejoong had ever been so bold.  
  
“Baby, why so tense? It’ll be good…it’s always so good,” his lover cooed into his ear as he flicked his tongue against the ear in question. It caused chills to run down Yunho’s spine.  
  
Yunho tried to clear his head. Jaejoong’s touch was making him feel dizzy. Jaejoong had never voiced any desire to, well…to take a more dominate role in their lovemaking. Although Yunho knew it was only fair, but he had thought his lover was happy with their current arrangement. Well actually, Yunho knew Jaejoong was happy, their bond left no room for lies, or misunderstandings in their most intimate of acts.  
  
Yunho whimpered into the pillow as one finger became two. To be completely honest Yunho had never wanted this. Or he didn’t want it yet, and Jaejoong knowing this had not pressed the issue. What had happened to cause him to press the issue now, and in such a way? He was surprised that the other man had not seen fit to discuss it with him first.  
  
Why now? Yunho wondered as he tried to make sense of the situation through the lust -filled haze of his mind. Yunho turned his head to the side with his eyes still pressed closed as Jaejoong continued to work to loosen him up. It wouldn’t be so bad, Yunho told himself. If Jaejoong wanted this, then as his lover he should allow it. Jaejoong would never do anything to hurt him, and if it did hurt him then his mate could easily rid him of any discomfort.  
  
Fingers moved deeper inside of him, touching his prostate and pleasure shot through Yunho’s entire body. No, not that bad at all, Yunho thought as he instinctively arched back into Jaejoong. He had never experienced this pleasure before, and he would be lying if he didn’t admit to himself how nice it was.  
  
Two fingers continued to tease his prostate, and Yunho felt himself moving closer to the edge. The pleasure was amazing, and although he still has some doubts he ignored them. He would allow this for Jaejoong. They were equals, Yunho reminded himself as he tried to relax, and allow himself to enjoy the experience.  
  
 _“What brought this on?”_ Yunho asked his lover mentally. When Jaejoong didn’t answer him a horrible thought took root in his mind. Jaejoong had said nothing to him telepathically…nothing at all. Yunho’s eyes flew open, the recent occurrences with the guardian flooded back to him, and all the pleasure he had been experiencing vanished instantly as he came face to face with a white tiger.  
  
Yunho’s suspicions were confirmed to his complete and utter shock. He was in a room he didn’t recognize, he was about to be on the receiving end of anal sex for the first time by a Jaejoong that was not his own, and most shockingly he was staring at a white tiger in the face.  
  
The tiger was standing beside the bed with its head resting against the mattress as he looked back at Yunho. Yunho fought the urge to flee, fearing what the tiger would do if he made a hasty move.  
  
“Baby, why are you so tight…Jiji, stop watching! You know he doesn’t like it when you watch!” Jaejoong screamed, reaching over Yunho to swat the big, white tiger on the face. “Get out!”  
  
Yunho was stunned when the tiger didn’t rip into the man; instead it just yawned in his direction, not bothering to follow his orders. Yunho sat up instantly, tossing Jaejoong off his back, realizing the tiger was some huge pet. Yunho stared back at the huge cat completely dumbfounded…who in the world would have such an animal as a pet?  
  
“Yunho! We were in the middle of something,” this reality’s version of Jaejoong whined as Yunho sat up against the headboard of the bed, pulling a purple, velvety blanket up over his waist as he continued to eye the tiger.  
  
“Not anymore.”  
  
“What? We can’t just stop. You said you were in the mood,” Jaejoong protested as he stood up in the large bed.  
  
“Well, I am not in the mood anymore,” Yunho informed the other man when he looked up at him for the first time. Yunho’s mouth fell open. Yunho could not imagine that Jaejoong could ever look so manly. This version had a body that was rippling with muscles. He had very black, short hair that only added to his masculine looks. His body also had tattoos scattered across it, the most obscene being one across his groin that was of Yunho’s name with an arrow pointing toward Jaejoong’s very hard cock.  
  
Jaejoong reached down, grabbed Yunho’s lower legs that were sticking out from underneath the blanket, and pulled until Yunho was lying with his back flat against the bed. “I will just have to work to correct that little problem.”  
  
Yunho barely reached his arms up in time to prevent Jaejoong from lunging for his lips. “No, really I am not in the mood….the tiger…Jiji is still watching,” Yunho stammered, looking for a reason to get this version of Jaejoong to leave him alone.  
  
“It’s your own fault, you spoil him rotten. Now, I want to be spoiled. Baby, I need you. I want you so bad,” Jaejoong explained as he easily moved Yunho’s arms out of the way and started kissing Yunho.  
  
Yunho turned away from the kiss, astonished at how strong this version of Jaejoong was and how weak he was. Even with all his strength the other man had easily moved his arms out of the way.  
  
Jaejoong’s hand reached up, found his face, and positioned Yunho until their lips met. Jaejoong growled into Yunho’s mouth, trying to push his tongue in, but Yunho refused to kiss him back. Yunho cursed the Guardian for putting him in such a position. “Please don’t,” Yunho pleaded, hating how weak his voice sounded.  
  
Jaejoong lifted his head and stared down at Yunho, scrutinizing him. “Baby, this is the only night this month that we have off from the show. I thought you wanted it too. Not just a quick romp, but nice and slow.”  
  
Yunho turned away from that observant gaze, and found that the white tiger still had not moved. “I can’t…not with him watching.”  
  
“Then tell him to leave, you know he won’t listen to me,” Jaejoong told Yunho as he bent back down, and moved down Yunho’s body till he took Yunho’s nipple in his mouth, and started teasing it with his tongue and a little bit of teeth.  
  
Yunho looked at the tiger, and wondered if he ordered it to attack the horny bastard on top of him, if it would. Yunho immediately cast that thought aside, realizing the Yunho that belonged to this reality wouldn’t appreciate it. “Shoo,” Yunho told the tiger, and the tiger immediately obeyed. Yunho watched as the tiger turned and walked out of the room.  
  
Yunho sighed, wondering if he had done the right thing…maybe he could have just had it drag Jaejoong away. He could always call for it again, Yunho thought as looked up at the ceiling and gawked. On the ceiling above the bed was a huge mirror, and Yunho could see himself. Yunho stared flabbergasted…he wasn’t just weak, he was feminine. He had long hair, and he looked so delicate.  
  
The thought that he, Captain Yunho, was actually a woman had him reaching down and grabbing for his cock. He prayed it was still there. Relief flooded him as his hands encountered the limp organ that was not responding to the other man’s ministrations.  
  
“Now, that’s more like it. Get into it with me,” Jaejoong moaned as he felt Yunho’s movement. Yunho immediately jerked his hand away from his cock.  
  
Yunho stared up at his feminine reflection with distaste. “So you are going to force me,” Yunho snapped. He was suddenly very annoyed with this entire situation. Yunho knew martial arts, but he wondered if the body he was in now would even respond. He hated to resort to such things.  
  
Jaejoong jerked back as if he had been hit. “Force you? I would never!”  
  
“Really? Then what do you call this? How many times do I have to tell you I’m not in the mood?” Yunho hissed as he climbed out of the bed dragging the purple blanket with him.  
  
Jaejoong just sat up in bed and stared at Yunho at a complete loss. “Baby, I’m sorry…but what did I do?”  
  
Yunho, who just noticed to his horror that his fingernails were painted pink, felt a wave of guilt as he listened to the hurt in the other man’s voice. Yunho reminded himself that this Jaejoong wasn’t trying to rape him. He had merely thought he was making love to this reality’s version of Yunho. “I have had a really strange day…you just can’t even imagine.”  
  
“Try me,” Jaejoong pleaded, reaching out for Yunho. Yunho glared back at him, causing the other man to hold up his hands. “No touching.”  
  
Yunho sat back down on the bed, while not taking his eyes off Jaejoong, fearful that the man might make another lunge for him. Yunho wondered what would happen if he told this version of Jaejoong the truth. “What would you say if I told you that…I am not your Yunho. I’m actually from another reality, and in that reality I’m a Starship Captain.”  
  
The other man bolted out of bed, completely enraged, causing Yunho to jump. “Did Taegoon give you something? I will fucking kill him. He knows you don’t tolerate drugs!”  
  
Before Yunho could respond to the man’s accusation, he felt the Guardian pulling him away.  
  
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  
  
Jaejoong blinked as he suddenly found himself hovering over a stove and stirring a pot of what appeared to be a creamy, yellow liquid. His mind cleared much quicker than on the first jump. He took in his surroundings, and found that he was in some kind of living area. His sharp eyes and mind immediately noticed a young boy a few feet away from him sitting at the table, eating.  
  
His telepathic mind gently entered the young boy's mind to find out more information regarding his location. The young boy’s name was Junsu, and he was eating his breakfast before he went to school. They were apparently in the kitchen of the boy’s family home, and this was his usual routine. The young boy's thoughts were centered on a sports activity called soccer that he had scheduled for later in the day.  
  
Jaejoong’s information gathering from the boy was interrupted when a young teenage girl burst onto the scene. She hurried to Jaejoong, and much to his surprise gave him a fierce hug. “Good Morning, JJ!”  
  
“Good Morning…Hana,” Jaejoong quickly answered, leaving the boy’s mind to venture into the girls. She and the boy both had black hair and brown eyes, looking like most of the Expectation’s crew. Both the boy and the girl were wearing black and white school uniforms. Where the boy was slender, the girl was slightly plump. She was full of love for the Jaejoong who lived in this reality, Jaejoong noticed.  
  
Hana let go of him and looked at the pot that he had been stirring. “What are you cooking?”  
  
Jaejoong blinked. If she didn’t know what he was cooking, he sure as heck didn’t know. He looked down at the pot in a total loss.  
  
“It’s a surprise,” Junsu answered as he stuffed a big spoonful of food into his mouth.  
  
Hana immediately frowned. “It better not be for Oppa! He doesn’t deserve any new recipes!”  
  
Jaejoong stared at her curiously as his mind unlocked her secrets. She was very unhappy with her older brother for going out on a date last night. She felt that he had wronged Jaejoong greatly. She had an idealized opinion of Jaejoong, she believed him to be mostly without faults, and practically saint-like. The only gripe she had against Jaejoong was the he would never agree with her regarding her brother’s dishonorable treatment of him. In fact, the Jaejoong of this reality was in the habit of doing just the opposite, and never confirming any kind of feelings of jealously on his own behalf.  
  
The Jaejoong in this reality was apparently a friend of her older brother that lived with them, and helped take care of her and her brothers. Jaejoong touched upon a great sadness within the young girl…her parents had both died.  
  
“Oh, whatever you are making, it smells wonderful,” a familiar cheerful voice proclaimed as Yunho strolled into the kitchen with a big, smiling baby boy attached to his hip.  
  
Hana folded her arms, glaring at her brother and then declaring, “It isn’t for you. You cheater!”  
  
“Hana! I’m not a cheater!”  
  
“Yes, you are!”  
  
Yunho took a deep breath and pressed his lips together, pausing before replying to her. Jaejoong watched as Yunho controlled his temper, and told Hana in a much calmer voice than the one she was using on him, “We have had this talk a billion times, and we are not going to have it again this morning. We are going to have a happy breakfast together.”  
  
“You-”  
  
“Stop it,” Yunho told her firmly but not sharply. “If it makes you feel better it was a horrendous date.”  
  
Jaejoong watched as Hana smiled now. “Well duh, it was with a girl and you’re gay.”  
  
“Hana,” Yunho said in a long suffering voice as he stared at the ceiling of the kitchen, as if he was begging for patience. Jaejoong couldn’t help but smile at him. Jaejoong found this Yunho rather attractive. Yunho was decked out in a nice suit, but it was the smiling baby perched on his hips that made him really attractive. Jaejoong internally winced, he hoped and prayed babies were not in his immediate future.  
  
Junsu, who was still seated at the table asked, “What does gay mean?”  
  
Yunho closed his eyes, finished praying for patience, and turned to his younger brother with a big smile. “It means happy, merry, or joyous. It’s just another word for being glad.”  
  
Junsu nodded his head, satisfied with the explanation and continued eating his breakfast. Hana however gave her older brother an exaggerated eye roll.  
  
“Eat,” Yunho told his younger sister and pointed her toward the table.  
  
“I’m on a diet.”  
  
“No, you aren’t. Hana, you are perfect.”  
  
“Am not.”  
  
“Are too,” Yunho insisted as he took one of her arms and carefully pushed her toward the breakfast table. “You are much too young to be on a diet.”  
  
Jaejoong watched as Hana walked to the table and sat down by her little brother. There was already a plate of food prepared for her…actually there were four plates of food on the table. This was a family.  
  
“Thanks for all the help with her this morning,” Yunho whispered, full of sarcasm as he walked over to Jaejoong and stared down at the pot. Jaejoong realized this Yunho had wanted help dealing with his younger sister this morning.  
  
“You’re welcome,” Jaejoong answered. This might not be his Yunho, but still he wasn’t going to help any Yunho that willingly went on dates with women. Hana must have been right; the Jaejoong that belonged in this reality must be a saint.  
  
The baby Yunho was holding reached out its arms for Jaejoong and cried out, “Momma!”  
  
A very shocked Jaejoong took the baby that was climbing out of Yunho’s arms in his direction. This was his child? He cursed the Joong laws that prevented him from killing randomly. What a pig this Yunho is, Jaejoong thought. Apparently his saintly form in this reality helped Yunho raise his siblings, birthed this child, and allowed Yunho to date women. Jaejoong was disgusted that any soul of his would allow such behavior.  
  
“Hana!” Yunho’s accusing voice broke out, disturbing Jaejoong from his dark thoughts. “What did I tell you about teaching your brother to say that? Jaejoong is not his mother!”  
  
“Oh,” Jaejoong muttered as he stared at the baby, who just smiled back at him.  
  
Hana smiled at her big brother. “Minnie likes calling him that. JJ is the only mother he has ever known.”  
  
“Jaejoong is a man! A man! Stop teaching Changmin to call him momma!”  
  
“Momma,” Changmin repeated after hearing Yunho say the word. The big baby’s expression could only be described as a smirk as he reached for the pot on the stove. Jaejoong took a quick step back to keep the baby from reaching his goal. This baby was called Changmin? Come to think of it, the kid at the table was not only named Junsu but looked a lot like Yunho’s favorite ensign. Was it not just Yunho and Jaejoong’s souls that were connected? Or was the Guardian messing with him?  
  
“Changmin, say JJ,” Yunho said, startling Jaejoong when he patted Jaejoong’s chest. “This is JJ.”  
  
“Momma.”  
  
“No, JJ.”  
  
“Momma.”  
  
“JJ.”  
  
“Momma.”  
  
“JJ.”  
  
“Momma.”  
  
“You know you could help a guy out!” Yunho complained as he took the baby from Jaejoong. Jaejoong just giggled, unable to resist. The exasperated man’s expression was priceless.  
  
“JJ, can I call you momma too?” Junsu asked from the table.  
  
“NO!” Yunho bellowed as he hurried toward the table and plopped Changmin down in a chair that must have been especially designed for babies.  
  
Junsu and Hana shared a laugh, and Junsu teased, “But it’s not fair if Minnie gets to call JJ momma and I don’t.”  
  
Yunho’s frown disappeared, realizing he was being teased. “So not funny guys, imagine Changmin’s first day at preschool. What will his teachers think? It isn’t funny!” Yunho scolded them as he sat down beside Changmin and started feeding the hungry baby.  
  
“Minnie just does it because he knows you don’t like it,” Hana explained to her older brother.  
  
Yunho eyed the baby that was happily munching away. “Hana, he is just a baby…he doesn’t do it on purpose.”  
  
“Bull,” Hana insisted.  
  
Junsu nodded his head in agreement with his big sister, and swallowed down the last of his breakfast before proclaiming, “He’s an evil genius.”  
  
Yunho looked suspiciously at the big baby, who was eyeing the plate of food in front of Yunho with longing. Before Yunho could respond to Junsu’s remark, a honking sound filled the air, causing Junsu to jump up. The boy raced around the table, toward the door, but stopped before opening it to look back at his big brother. “Are you coming to my game?”  
  
Yunho paled slightly, then turned and gave Jaejoong a pleading look. Jaejoong entered the other Yunho’s mind and realized he wanted help regarding the time of the game. Jaejoong left Yunho’s mind and got the information quickly from Junsu’s. “It’s at five o’clock.”  
  
Yunho turned all his attention on Junsu. “I’ll be there. You know I wouldn’t miss it. You are my favorite soccer player after all.”  
  
Junsu, who Jaejoong knew was a happy child, brightened even more. “And we are going to practice this weekend, and Eunhyuk can come over?”  
  
“Yes, yes,” Yunho said, nodding his head in agreement. “Now you hurry off to school, and don’t forget to thank Mrs. Lee for the ride!”  
  
“I won’t forget,” promised Junsu as he hurried for the door. Jaejoong couldn’t help but feel the love all around him. The house was full of love. He knew they all had suffered a great personal tragedy, but the love among them was undeniable. Jaejoong was very curious about his relationship with Yunho though, and before he could dig deeper into Yunho’s mind he felt the familiar tug of the Guardian pulling him away.  
  
**************  
  
“This was one crazy bitch.”  
  
“Yoochun-”  
  
“It’s the truth. The room is creepy. I mean how many wigs can one woman have?”  
  
“Yeah, and look at all these pictures.”  
  
“It’s like a shrine to her lost youth.”  
  
“Can you imagine being raised by her? What it must have been like?”  
  
“No, I don’t want to either.”  
  
The familiar voices of Yoochun and Junsu drifted down from above Yunho, and greeted him as the Guardian deposited him in this new reality. It looked like he was in an old-fashioned, two-story house. Yunho found himself on a staircase clinging to the railing between the first and second floor. Yunho was not going to foolishly assume anything from now on. It was obvious that the Guardian had not stopped its little tour trip through the alternate realities.  
  
“If I knew what we were looking for it might be easier,” Yunho heard Junsu complain from above him on the second level of the house.  
  
“Anything that connects them,” Yoochun answered.  
  
“I hope it matters,” Junsu said, wistfully.  
  
“Who knows with Jae, but maybe after he cools down.”  
  
“It isn’t Lily’s fault,” Junsu insisted.  
  
“No,” Yoochun agreed. “But that doesn’t mean Yunho isn’t going to pay for not keeping it in his pants for the rest of his life, or Lily’s life for that matter.”  
  
“It’s just stupid. They were not even together at the time,” Yunho heard Junsu complain.  
  
“I know, but when has our lovely Jaejoong ever been rational when it comes to Yunho? Let’s go check out the room at the end of the hall. It might have something.”  
  
“Lily is an innocent in all this,” Junsu insisted as his voice grew fainter as he and Yoochun moved away from Yunho.  
  
“I know, but-” the rest of what Yoochun was going to say was drowned out as the familiar voice of his lover demanded.  
  
“What the hell are you just standing there for?”  
  
Yunho looked down to the bottom of the stairs from his halfway perch and winced. This was most definitely Jaejoong. This Jaejoong was almost as beautiful as the version in his reality, but the man’s eyes were full of fire.  
  
“Ummm,” Yunho barely managed to get out, and started to walk down the stairs toward the man. Yunho had taken one step when he realized he had made a grave error. Yunho suddenly felt himself falling forward. He reached out, his arms grabbing for the railing he had so carelessly let go of earlier. Yunho came to the disturbing realization that the Yunho in this reality did not have the benefit of a strong body, and most certainly not that of sturdy legs.  
  
Yunho managed to grab the railing but to his dismay his arm also felt weak, and he knew the arm would not hold him for long. Before the arm failed him, he felt another pair of arms grab a hold of him.  
  
“Yunho, dammit! I knew you were too stressed,” Jaejoong cursed in his ear as he pulled Yunho up to a standing position. “This is just great!”  
  
Yunho just watched as Jaejoong wrapped his arm around his waist and proceeded to walk him down the stairs. To Yunho’s surprise Changmin greeted them at the floor with a concerned look. “I knew we shouldn’t have come here. I just knew it,” Jaejoong snapped as he dragged Yunho to a couch and forced him to sit down.  
  
“Are you alright?” Changmin asked Yunho.  
  
“I’m fine,” Yunho answered.  
  
Jaejoong snorted and then proceeded to rearrange Yunho’s clothing as he checked Yunho over for any sign of injury. “Fine, my ass. You are just lucky I was there to catch you.”  
  
Changmin sat down on the arm of the couch, giving Yunho a disapproving look. “Yunho, if you were feeling that weak you should have told us. You know better than to take the stairs when your body isn’t in good condition.”  
  
Yunho looked up into the face of his son…or this version of Changmin, and answered honestly, “I didn’t know I was that weak.”  
  
“Aren’t you sleeping?” Changmin asked.  
  
“Of course not!” Jaejoong hissed as he finished checking Yunho for any sign of injury. “How do you expect us to sleep with that screaming banshee in the mansion?”  
  
“Jae! That’s a little cold!” Changmin accused.  
  
“It’s the truth!”  
  
“Is not!”  
  
“You don’t have to live with her!”  
  
“Well maybe I should! I think I need to move back!”  
  
“Please move back! You can be exposed to the constant screaming too!”  
  
“It’s crying, Jae! Crying! There is a difference!”  
  
Yunho watched with wide eyes as Changmin and Jaejoong went back and forth with each other. Did these two get along in any reality?  
  
“Remember that when you get woken up at 4am.”  
  
“I will!”  
  
“Then move back in!”  
  
“I will!”  
  
“Good!”  
  
“Yunho needs my support!”  
  
“What the hell does that mean?”  
  
“He apparently isn’t getting it from you!”  
  
Yunho found himself staring at Jaejoong. Jaejoong, who looked so soft and beautiful, but Yunho thought looks could be deceiving. Yunho could not believe that he had cheated on this version of Jaejoong. The Yunho in this reality must be a very brave soul, or really stupid because this Jaejoong…well, he was scary as shit. Yunho was grateful that this version of Jaejoong didn’t appear to have the power to kill with his mind.  
  
A soft hand rested against Yunho’s face, and broke him from his daze to see Jaejoong watching him closely. Jaejoong with a much softer voice asked, “Yunho, why are you looking at me like that?”  
  
“He probably just realized he is saddled to your cranky ass for the rest of his life,” Changmin barked at Jaejoong.  
  
In response to Changmin’s remark, Jaejoong raised his other arm and pointed his middle finger at Changmin without taking his eyes of Yunho. “I’m sorry…you know it’s hard for me.”  
  
Yunho just stared back at Jaejoong not knowing what to say, because he really didn’t know what the hell was going on, so he answered with a safe, “I know.”  
  
Jaejoong smiled at him and all the hatefulness vanished. Yunho smiled back at him as the beautiful man leaned over and kissed him on the lips. Yunho instantly understood the draw of this version of Jaejoong. This version of Jaejoong was like a fire that drew you in.  
  
“You two are crazy. I can’t believe you are kissing him after he called your-”  
  
“Guess what we found!” Junsu proclaimed, interrupting Changmin as he rushed up to them.  
  
Jaejoong pulled away from Yunho and looked at Junsu. “What?”  
  
Yoochun followed Junsu into the room holding a piece of paper. “A birth certificate.”  
  
“Guess who had the same exact birthday as Kim Jaejoong?” Junsu asked with a very pleased look upon his face.  
  
“I knew it was more then a coincidence,” Changmin said from his seat on the arm of the couch beside Yunho.  
  
Yunho watched as Jaejoong paled, and shook his head and whispered, “No, it can’t be.”  
  
Yoochun walked over and rested a hand on Jaejoong’s shoulder and told the other man in a firm voice, “It is true, and I think it’s time you have a talk with your biological mother.”  
  
“Auntie Jae,” Junsu said full of delight.  
  
“Auntie Jae,” Yunho repeated confused. Before he had time to question them further the Guardian pulled him away.  
  
**************************  
  
  
Jaejoong opened his eyes only to squeeze them shut an instant later as a searing pain shot though his head. He dropped to the floor, letting out a scream of pain, and reached for his head.  
  
The pain that tore through his head was unimaginable, and Jaejoong fought to remain conscious. His empathic powers were on overdrive as he felt many a man’s pain, while his head continued to feel like it was going to split in half from another kind of horrendous pain. Unfortunately, his telepathic powers were not working at all; his empathic powers were drowning out everything. Sadly, Jaejoong thought his sense of smell was working just fine, as he breathed in a rotten stench that left his stomach queasy.  
  
“Liam, are you okay?” the voice of an older man could clearly be heard asking. Jaejoong felt old, rough hands on his shoulder.  
  
Through the assault of the pain, Jaejoong wondered who the hell Liam was. He was Jaejoong, and if the Guardian had any compassion at all it would immediately transport him out of this place.  
  
“What should we do, Doctor?” another unfamiliar voice asked.  
  
The older man from before answered, “Peter, lets get him up for now.” He felt two pairs of arms pull him to his feet. “Liam, I know it must be hard, but try to collect yourself.”  
  
“Collect myself?” Jaejoong sneered. He wondered how he was supposed to do that. He had never experienced such sensory overload, and pain at the same time. It was like he was in hell. His own mind was betraying him by its attempts to split in half. At times Jaejoong would have swore the floor beneath him was rocking back and forth.  
  
“Should I get the captain?” the one named Peter asked, causing Jaejoong’s eyes to fly open. The reason for his empathic overload was immediately noticeable. He was in a closed off room without windows. The room was lit by lanterns, and it was filled with wounded men…dying men. Jaejoong stared at the men, who were covered in bandages, and most of the bandages were stained red with blood. Some of the men were without arms and legs…and some were without both.  
  
“The captain has his hands full,” the old man told Peter as he led Jaejoong to the side of the room. “He would only worry. Liam will be himself in no time…isn’t that right, Liam?”  
  
Jaejoong didn’t answer because all Jaejoong could see was the reflection he cast. A small, square mirror hung from the wall facing Jaejoong. The vision inside of it dulled everything for just a moment. It was not his face that stared back at him, but that of another. The reflection that stared back at him was no less beautiful…than his own. The skin was the same perfect complexion, the eyes a crystal blue color. Long, thick eyelashes perfect rosy, red lips, and soft blond hair that hung in curly waves just off his shoulder.  
  
“Yes, you are a mighty pretty sight. Never met a girl that came even close to topping your grand looks,” the older voice said, amused as he pushed Jaejoong down into a chair and away from his reflection.  
  
A tall lanky, unattractive boy bent over in front of Jaejoong, studying him. “The captain won’t like that he was like this, and nobody told him.”  
  
“Peter, the captain has pirates to deal with. He can’t be babysitting right now,” the older man said. “I can’t be either, and neither can you. These men need us.”  
  
Jaejoong watched as the older man and Peter hurried back to the injured men that filled the room. The pain in Jaejoong’s head had not lessened, and his empathic senses were still overloading him…no doubt the small room of suffering men did not help that. He needed to get out of here, but he didn’t trust himself to walk. It did not help that the whole room at times felt like it was swaying in the wind.  
  
Jaejoong eyed the whole room, looking for an escape route. He needed to get out of this room, maybe if he got away his telepathic abilities would return, and he would have some clue as to where he was. “Yunho,” Jaejoong whispered as he thought of his lover. If the Guardian was also giving Yunho the guided tour through the lives they had shared…Yunho would always feel like this. Lost and without the benefit of Jaejoong’s telepathic powers. Jaejoong winced as he thought of his poor Yunho, and what it must be like for him.  
  
Jaejoong slowly stood back up, and cursed his healing powers that were having no affect on the excruciating pain that was filling his head. He leaned heavily against the wall and slowly moved toward steps he saw leading up and out of the room. The room he supposed was some kind of medical room, but it was so dated. It was unlike anything Jaejoong had ever seen before.  
  
Slowly and not so steadily he walked toward the steps. The other two men had talked about a captain. Was the captain Yunho in this reality? They seemed to think he would be concerned for Jaejoong…or perhaps he should think of himself as Liam. Jaejoong knew his soul, his essence, was in this beautiful man named Liam. The vain part of Jaejoong was relieved that he was trapped inside such a beautiful body.  
  
He reached the steps and slowly made his way up, ignoring the pain as best he could. He pushed open a door and stepped onto a wood floor. He opened his eyes wider, fighting the pain to take in his surroundings. All he saw around him was water. Comprehension dawned on him, and he realized he was on a ship. He was on a ship at sea.  
  
Jaejoong slowly made it to the edge of the ship and looked over the side. All he could see as far as his eye could reach was water. Dread filled Jaejoong and he sank to the floor of the ship. He was trapped on a ship full of suffering people. The pain in his head had gone from sharp to pounding. He cursed his empathic abilities. If his telepathic ones were going to fail him, then why couldn’t his empathic ones fail him too? But Jaejoong knew it was more than his empathic powers triggering the pain…it was almost as if this brain wasn’t made to hold his powers. Did this brain not have the capacity for telepathy at all, and was that the cause of his pain?  
  
He closed his eyes, enjoying the darkness. The pain was lessened when he shut out the light. Jaejoong realized his mind had been in disarray for most of his visits to the different realities. Perhaps his Joong consciousness did not take well to the old bodies his soul had once been housed in.  
  
“Mr. Liam, do you require assistance?” an alarmed voice asked.  
  
Jaejoong begrudgingly opened his eyes to see a bald man standing over him and looking panicked. “No, I do not,” Jaejoong told him, closing his eyes again against the assaulting sunlight.  
  
“Are you sure, Sir?”  
  
“Yes, now please leave me alone,” Jaejoong couldn’t help snapping. Jaejoong didn’t watch as the other man walked away. He could tell the man was hesitant to leave him, but he didn’t care. He just wanted to be gone from this stupid reality, and all its pain. He just wanted to leave. He leaned his head into his knees and prayed the Guardian would soon have mercy on him.  
  
Jaejoong was lost in his own world of misery. He had lost count of how many well-intentioned sailors he had chased off. Jaejoong was doing his best to close out the world around him, when he felt a strong, yet gently hand brush through his hair. Jaejoong slowly lifted his head from his knees ready to tell another sailor to get lost when he opened his eyes, and stopped himself.  
  
Standing before him was a very handsome man in the most dashing blue uniform that he had ever seen. The uniform was dark blue, trimmed in gold. There was a white silk shirt underneath, and even the dark blue hat the man wore only added to his stylish looks. Jaejoong instantly thought the crew of the Expectations should wear such uniforms. The man had soft brown hair that was tied back, and piercing green eyes that were full of concern.  
  
“Robert tells me you are being very rude,” the man told him with smile that did not hide the concern in his eyes.  
  
“Robert,” Jaejoong repeated at a loss. It must have been one of the sailors he had sent on his way.  
  
“You don’t remember?”  
  
Jaejoong stared up at the man, drowning in his handsome good looks. “I have a really bad headache.”  
  
The hand that has been running through his hair slid down to wipe his eyes. “Liam, your eyes are so red. You should have told Ben, he would have given you something.”  
  
“I didn’t want…I don’t-”  
  
The handsome man knelt down and looked him in the eye, and said interrupting him, “You didn’t want to be a bother.”  
  
“Yunho…” Jaejoong whispered, trailing off as he recognized the soul behind those eyes.  
  
The man looked at him, confused. “I know what?”  
  
“How I am,” Jaejoong quickly answered, finding relief in just knowing that Yunho’s soul was here on the ship with him.  
  
The man let out a small laugh, and stood back up, pulling Jaejoong up with him. “Yes, I do. All too well I’m afraid.”  
  
Jaejoong just smiled at him. He liked this version of Yunho.  
  
“Let me take you back to the cabin so you can rest,” the man told him.  
  
Jaejoong nodded his head, and allowed the man to lead him away. The pain was still in his head, but he felt comforted so much by this man’s presence. Although he doubted his Yunho would be happy to know how eager he was to follow another man back to his cabin. But it kind of still was Yunho, Jaejoong reasoned, as the man led him through the ship.  
  
Jaejoong watched as the other men on the ship saluted, or greeted the man with the word captain. This man was a captain too, the captain that the first men he had encountered had mentioned. Jaejoong smiled. He liked belonging to handsome captains. He hated the ship and the headache, but this reality did have its perks.  
  
The man led him into a large cabin, the captain’s cabin, Jaejoong quickly surmised, and toward a bed at the side of the room. “Now, sleep,” the captain said, pulling back the sheets and motioning for Jaejoong to climb in bed.  
  
Jaejoong did as instructed. The captain sat down on the edge of the bed, and continued to study him closely. “Are you sure the headache is all that’s bothering you?”  
  
“What do you mean?”  
  
A hand reached out and caressed his face. “The pirates… what they did to their prisoners… it had to bring back bad memories. I know the one boy was castrated…I can’t imagine what must be running through your mind right now.”  
  
“Castrated,” Jaejoong barely managed to get out the word. One did not have to be a telepath to get what the captain was hinting at. One of Jaejoong’s hands sneaked under the covers, and to his horror found a penis but not a scrotum. Jaejoong jerked his hand back quickly and moaned.  
  
“You didn’t know?”  
  
“I don’t want to think about that…I just want to go home,” Jaejoong cried. He hated that he felt tears in his eyes, but dammit he just wanted to go home…he just wanted his Yunho.  
  
“And where is home, Liam?”  
  
Jaejoong snapped out of his self-pity to realize he might have said too much. “Huh?”  
  
“Since the day I saved you…all those years ago, I have often asked you repeatedly where your home was. And you have never answered me truthfully. You must know that I would take you home…if only you would tell me,” the captain told him with just a touch of sadness.  
  
Jaejoong quickly turned on his side, facing away from the captain. “It doesn’t matter,” Jaejoong answered. He had no answers for the captain. Liam’s home was a mystery to him also.  
  
“Liam, I know you weren’t a poor orphan the pirates picked off some shoreline. You are better educated than anyone I have ever met. You speak more languages then a university professor. Don’t you know by now that you can tell me anything,” the captain pleaded with a touch of desperation in his voice.  
  
Jaejoong turned back to face the captain. He could understand the man’s curiosity. He was curious himself, but Liam’s secrets were not his own. “Please Captain, just go.”  
  
The captain leaned back quickly as if he had been slapped. “Captain? Not Gil…you are in a mood.”  
  
Jaejoong could tell the other man was hurt…of course he would never call his Yunho captain…well unless he was annoyed with him. These lovers must feel the same way. “Gil, will you please leave,” Jaejoong asked softly this time. Then Jaejoong reached out and took the other man’s hand, and brought it up to his lips and kissed it.  
  
The response was immediate and totally unexpected. The captain jerked away as if Liam had bitten him. The look of horror that filled the other man’s face let Jaejoong know that his assumption that they were lovers had been incorrect.  
  
“Liam, go to sleep,” the captain demanded, now standing beside the bed slowly inching away. “Hopefully when you awaken, your senses will have returned.”  
  
Jaejoong sat up and watched as the captain hastily left the cabin. It was official, Jaejoong thought; this was the worst reality ever. He fell back down on the bed and pulled the pillow over his face. He was feeling terribly sorry for himself and this poor beautiful Liam fellow, who shared his soul, when the Guardian pulled him away, much to his eternal thanks.


	4. Precious Pet

A gentle breeze aroused Yunho from a restless sleep.  
  
His eyes fluttered open and he found himself sitting up in a chair. The chair was against an open window. The sight and sounds from outside the window brought a small smile to Yunho’s face. It was like a scene from ancient earth’s Wild West. People rode upon horses, women were wearing long dresses, and horse-pulled buggies filled the dirt road.  
  
As a young boy, Yunho had thought that if he couldn’t be a Starship Captain, his first and greatest dream, then to be a real cowboy would have been his second choice. But of course cowboys didn’t exist in his time. To ride upon a good horse, and to fight for truth and justice…this Yunho would have loved.  
  
Yunho’s back ached, so he sat up straighter. He looked at his hands and found them to be much older than his own hands. This version of Yunho was not a young man, but still he was eager to explore this reality. Yunho was about to stand up when the realization of what the other Yunho had been doing hit him like a ton of bricks. Yunho in his cowboy boots and clothes from another era was sitting at another’s bedside.  
  
Yunho’s mouth went dry at the sight in front of him. Resting on the bed was a middle-aged man, whose skin was a deathly yellow color, and whose stomach stuck out like a pregnant woman’s. The man’s breathing was irregular and his eyes were closed shut. Even though he was nothing like his bondmate Yunho knew instinctively that this was the Jaejoong of this reality.  
  
Yunho reached for the other man’s hand and grasped it tightly. “What happened…why are you like this?” Yunho asked, unable to comprehend the vision before him.  
  
“Do you really not know?” a feminine voice asked from the other side of the room.  
  
Yunho jerked his head around to find an attractive middle-aged woman standing in the corner of the room in a long black dress. “No,” Yunho answered her.  
  
The woman gave him a sad look and walked closer to the bed, and looked down at Jaejoong sadly. “I often wondered if you knew…if you ever suspected, but I never had the nerve to ask.”  
  
Yunho looked away from her and back to Jaejoong, who was dying in front of him. Jaejoong wasn’t supposed to die like this. Jaejoong was supposed to be forever beautiful, not this…never this.  
  
“But of course you didn’t know. There is no room in your world of honor, justice, duty, and brotherhood for thoughts like the ones that tormented him.”  
  
“Can’t he be helped?” Yunho couldn’t help but ask of her. Yunho was unable to take his eyes off of Jaejoong. The long pauses between breaths unnerved Yunho…he was fearful each one would be the last.  
  
The woman shook her head. “You know there isn’t anything that can be done for him. It’s too late for him…much too late.”  
  
“What caused this?” Yunho asked, knowing the words she spoke were the truth. Jaejoong was beyond the help of medicine in this time. How Yunho wished Ryeowook would show up in this reality…his version of Ryeowook.  
  
The woman smiled sadly down at him and answered, “A life time of denying…denying his true feelings.”  
  
Yunho’s eyes flew up from Jaejoong to meet her gaze. “His true feelings?”  
  
“He was in love with you….for longer than I have even known you. Probably since you two were just boys. He loved you completely…I have never known anybody who was loved as much as he loved you. I’ve always been in love with you too, so it was easy for me to recognize the signs. What you and others saw as a deep friendship…was something else entirely.”  
  
“In love with me,” Yunho repeated softly, looking down at the man whose eyes remained shut.  
  
“Yes and all the alcohol in the world couldn’t erase that feeling for him. God, I used to hate,” the woman stopped as sobs escaped her. “I use to hate him so much. He was always at your side…you two were always riding off for some great adventure, but later I came to pity him so much. I got to be your wife, share your bed, have your children, and I’ll get to grow old with you…and he just got your everlasting friendship.”  
  
Yunho felt tears in his eyes, and knew she spoke the truth. “And he drank because of that.”  
  
The woman, who was still sobbing, nodded her head. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have told you. It was cruel of me to tell you. I’m sure he never wanted you to know.”  
  
“No, it’s okay,” Yunho insisted and squeezed Jaejoong’s hand tighter. The Yunho of this reality had been blind to Jaejoong’s love, and in his misery Jaejoong had drunk himself into an early grave. Yunho remembered this era in history, and he suspected his counterpart had been oblivious to the other man’s feelings.  
  
“I’m sure he never wanted you to know. I mean…I know he didn’t. He wouldn’t want you to feel uncomfortable around him. He would have wanted to protect your friendship…he treasured it so much. It was all he had of you. He wouldn’t have wanted you to think less of him,” the woman that was Yunho’s wife explained, with sadness coating her every word. “Please don’t think less of him.”  
  
“I don’t think less of him,” Yunho insisted firmly.  
  
The woman smiled down at her husband as tears covered her face. “You are a good man. You might have only had friendship to offer him, but you loved him the best you could. There was a reason he loved you so much, and you were worthy of that love.”  
  
Yunho swallowed. “I don’t know about that. I just-” Jaejoong’s respirations had grown fewer, and Yunho saw a tear glide down the other man’s cheek. “Can you leave us alone?” Yunho asked the woman, sensing that Jaejoong was aware of his surroundings.  
  
“Yes, of course…I will be right outside with the doctor,” the woman told him, and left the room, shutting the door behind her.  
  
As soon as the woman was gone, Yunho brought Jaejoong’s hand up to his mouth and pressed it against his cheek. Jaejoong’s eyes opened slowly to stare up at him. Yunho fought with himself to resist flinching at the sight of Jaejoong’s eyes. The white of Jaejoong’s eyes was completely yellow.  
  
Jaejoong was unable to say anything in return; the only sound coming from the man was the death rattle that came from the back of his throat, as his respirations grew farther and farther apart. Yunho watched as Jaejoong fought to keep looking at him.  
  
Yunho smiled down at this version of Jaejoong, wanting nothing more than to give him hope…in this hopeless situation. Yunho felt the overwhelming sadness that unrequited love had cost the other man. How cruel this Jaejoong must have found his life…how trapped. By being born in this age…with so much prejudice…how hopeless and afraid…he must have always felt alone. “There is so many miracles and marvels in this universe…you can’t even imagine. They are limitless. I know this life was not all you wanted it to be, but I promise you there is a time and place for us.”  
  
The last spark of life glistened in Jaejoong’s eyes for just a brief moment, showing his faith in Yunho’s words. Relief flooded Yunho as hope was restored to this reality’s Jaejoong as his life ended, and the Guardian swept Yunho far away.  
  
*************  
  
“You lie all the time.”  
  
Jaejoong opened his eyes and found himself in a new reality. Jaejoong was relieved to find that his head was not threatening to split in half. Jaejoong was in a cramped room with a very intoxicated Yunho, who was trying his best to look sober.  
  
“It’s not because you are a bad person...because you’re not. You are a good person. When you lie it’s like you get swept away in a feeling or something,” Yunho explained as he slumped back against the wall as he attempted to explain why Jaejoong lied. “You believe your lies when you are telling them…..because…well it’s a nice thing to say. It’s what people want you to say. You always want to make people happy. You believe your lies…till you don’t anymore.”  
  
Jaejoong frowned at Yunho. Trying to read the mind of an intoxicated man was not easy. The only thoughts he could gather from this drunken Yunho was that they were in a bathroom, his counterpart in this reality was a liar, and Yunho found him attractive. “You think I’m attractive?” Jaejoong repeated for some odd reason. Was he intoxicated too, he wondered. He felt so heavy. He had escaped the pain of the previous reality, to just find heaviness in this new one.  
  
“Yes,” Yunho answered without hesitation, and then pointed his finger at Jaejoong’s head to emphasize his point. “But you are still a liar, but a very attractive one…I really like your hair. You don’t look so much like a girl now.”  
  
Jaejoong’s hands immediately flew up to feel his hair that was shorter than he normally liked. He then walked over to the wall that had mirrors all across it to look at his hair. “It does look nice,” Jaejoong had to admit of the hair, but it was his face that stole his attention away. Make-up was plastered to his face, but it didn’t hide the dark circles that surrounded his eyes. This Jaejoong was very tired, and he knew this must be where the heaviness came from. This version of him looked as if he had been tired for years. It was almost as if sleep was an enemy of this version of himself, and that he desperately avoided it at all cost.  
  
“You shouldn’t have dragged me in here.”  
  
Jaejoong turned around to face this reality’s version of Yunho. “No?”  
  
“No, we are not friends anymore. We both chose different paths, and they are not friendly paths that merge in the middle. You got what you wanted. I got what I chose. And our friendship…well it was the price of it all,” Yunho explained while waving his hands to emphasize his points.  
  
Friendship? Jaejoong wondered if that was all that they had been to each other. This Yunho was intoxicated, and almost impossible to make any sense of. Jaejoong also feared that his counterpart was also more than a little inebriated, which did not help to simplify matters. “Friendship? Was that all we were…we weren’t more?”  
  
A blush slowly spread out across Yunho’s cheeks as he sank down to the floor, while still leaning against the wall for support. “We were just…young and stupid…it didn’t mean anything. We were just-” Yunho stopped when Jaejoong’s eyes flared.  
  
“Didn’t mean anything?” Jaejoong accused, repeating Yunho’s words. Was Yunho an idiot in every reality?  
  
“You said so!” Yunho quickly replied with panic all over his face. “You said it was because we were always together. You said it didn’t mean anything when it was the two of us. You said it didn’t count…that we were just special friends.”  
  
“I did.”  
  
Yunho nodded his head, looking really uncomfortable. “Why are we talking about this now? Why did you bring it up? It’s history…old history from another time.”  
  
“I don’t know,” Jaejoong answered honestly as he looked down at the man. He wondered what kind of relationship these men had really had. Apparently more than friendship, but that wasn’t something that either of them was proud of. “Just special friends…” Jaejoong whispered, trailing off.  
  
Yunho’s blush faded and he looked up at Jaejoong, baffled by the other man’s behavior. “That was years ago, we aren’t anything anymore.”  
  
“That just seems wrong,” Jaejoong couldn’t help but let slip out. Was the lost of that special friendship the reason for all the heaviness that weighed this body down? To have a soul mate and to not be with him…what did that do to a person?  
  
Yunho continued to stare at Jaejoong, confused, but now there was also compassion in his eyes. “Maybe someday…when we are old, and retired, we can be friends again. The company won’t care then, and maybe all the hurt will be lessened.”  
  
“You think so?”  
  
“I hope so and maybe all the lies will be over then. There have been too many lies.”  
  
Jaejoong felt a flash of guilt trickle across Yunho’s mind and he latched on to it. “You lie too.”  
  
There was a loud banging on the door, and Yunho climbed clumsily to his feet. Yunho swallowed and looked at Jaejoong sadly. “Yeah, but I had to. I try not to even say anything anymore. I don’t like talking about you guys anymore. I don’t want to lie. I don’t like it when I have to lie. I hate lying about you.”  
  
“Nobody can make you lie,” Jaejoong told him with a touch of harshness, because it was the truth. People always had a choice. Maybe they didn’t have the best options, but there was always a choice.  
  
Yunho, who was now standing in front of Jaejoong, closed his eyes, and Jaejoong felt his drunken regret. Yunho had his own heaviness about him too, weighing him down. “We never said we would leave. We wanted it to be better too, but we never said we would leave…not for certain. You three kept pushing…you were the angriest. You had your reasons, and I understood them. I hate how it ended…you have no idea how much I hate it. I wish I could have been stronger. I wish we all could have been better friends to each other, but we never said we would leave.”  
  
Now there was somebody yelling for Yunho and threatening to break down the door if he didn’t open it. “I better go,” Yunho told Jaejoong as he reached out and squeezed the shorter man’s arm.  
  
Jaejoong flung himself at Yunho and hugged him tightly. Jaejoong’s actions even shocked him, and he wondered if the other Jaejoong’s alcohol consumption was to blame. This Yunho wasn’t bad. This reality’s version of Jaejoong wasn’t bad either. Yunho had called him a liar, but not with malice, but with understanding. They were both liars. They were liars who were foolishly living lives apart…when they were supposed to be together. “When we are old…we will be friends. Promise me,” Jaejoong mumbled, full of melancholy into the other man’s shirt where his mouth was pressed up against the taller man. He felt so bad for this man, and this version of himself. He could feel tears in his eyes, because it was such a terrible waste.  
  
Jaejoong felt Yunho hug him back, and before the Guardian pulled him away he heard Yunho promise, “When we are older.”  
  
  
***************  
  
Yunho felt himself spiraling through the endless depths of the Guardian, and then suddenly to his astonishment he found himself standing before the Guardian on the Planet Eternity. Yunho’s first thought was of Jaejoong. Was their journey over? Before Yunho had time to ask the Guardian, he was overcome by the intoxicating power of the bond he shared with Jaejoong, alerting him of his lover’s presence.  
  
Yunho started to turn to look for his Jaejoong, when he suddenly found his arms full of his lover, who had just dived into his arms.  
  
“Yunho, my Yunho,” Jaejoong cried out in relief. Jaejoong wrapped his arms around Yunho’s neck and clung to him.  
  
“My Jaejoong,” Yunho whispered thankfully, saying his lover’s full name as he embraced the man in return. “My beautiful, healthy Jaejoong,” Yunho added as the vision of the dying man still lingered in his mind, haunting him.  
  
“Yunho, it was so awful at times and yet so wonderful. To know we are meant for each other, over and over again.”  
  
Yunho inhaled the scent of his lover and continued to embrace him. “Sometimes I thought my heart would break,” Yunho told Jaejoong, unconsciously tightening his hold on the man he loved.  
  
“Yes,” Jaejoong agreed, but something in Yunho’s voice had him curious.  
  
Yunho pushed Jaejoong away to face the Guardian of Time. He felt his anger flare as he looked at the ancient portal. Why had it felt the need to show them such things? “It tortured the people of this world to show us that. Why did the Guar-”  
  
“Stop,” Jaejoong ordered, placing his hand over the mouth of his mate.  _“You must not question its reasons.”_  
  
 _“How can I not question them?”  
  
“We have been presented with a great gift.”  
  
“You call that a gift…that was more like torture.”  
  
“Was it all so bad?”  
  
“That’s not the point, Jae.”  
  
“It is not our place to question the Guardian’s motives.”_  
  
 _“Really, I am pretty sure I heard you questioning it early.”  
  
“I did that for the people of Eternity. Yunho, I promise the Guardian had its reasons for taking us on that journey.”_  
  
Yunho turned his glare away from the Guardian, and really looked at the man standing bedside him. “Jae, it was just hard. Some of it was just so hard.”  
  
“I know, for me too,” Jaejoong told him. “But it wasn’t all horrible. Not at all, and it allowed us to have amazing insight to the path our souls have taken…so that we can be here right now.”  
  
“It was pretty horrible,” Yunho insisted refusing to give in, although he understood the truth of Jaejoong’s words. Yunho was thinking back over his trips to the other realities, wondering what great insights he had been rewarded when he felt the familiar feel of Jaejoong entering his mind. “Stop it.”  
  
“It’s my life too! I just want to know…what you went through.”  
  
Yunho folded his arms. “When I want you to read my mind I will tell you.”  
  
“You never want me to read your mind!”  
  
“That’s right! Not without my permission!”  
  
“You are so stubborn! Just so you know, you were a total dumbass in every reality I visited!” Jaejoong threw back at Yunho in his irritation.  
  
“Was I?”  
  
“Yes, you were! You were always denying our love! I have suffered so much throughout time because of you and your stubbornness!” Jaejoong accused, but the wave of hurt that radiated off of Yunho, after hearing Jaejoong’s words, filled Jaejoong with worry.  
  
Yunho pulled Jaejoong back into his arms. “I know, and I am sorry. So sorry for everything I have ever done to you.”  
  
Jaejoong let Yunho cling to him as he considered Yunho’s words. Had they only seen depressing visions of their past, but no that wasn’t right? Jaejoong remembered the bright, shiny happiness of the vision with the children…although the version of Yunho in that reality had dated a woman. “Did you see nothing of happiness?”  
  
Yunho considered Jaejoong’s words as he ran his hands up and down Jaejoong’s back, taking comfort in the other man’s nearness. “I suppose it wasn’t all horrible…although I didn’t really know what was going on most of the time…but we seemed to be together for most of my visits,” Yunho answered. They had some kind of connection in the reality with the unicorn, it had been obvious that they had been lovers in the reality with Changmin, Junsu, and Yoochun, and in the reality with the tiger….Yunho stopped that line of thought immediately.  
  
Jaejoong felt Yunho’s embarrassment and he couldn’t resist. “Oh, please tell me more about the tiger,” Jaejoong asked full of mischievous glee, refusing to abide by Yunho’s wishes just this once as he entered his lover’s mind.  
  
Yunho let go of Jaejoong, totally red-faced now. “I am warning you.”  
  
“You will just have to punish me later,” Jaejoong quickly replied as his face lit up in obvious enjoyment. “My Yunho, how dainty you were! I didn’t know you had a thing for masculine men. Should I work out and develop some muscles?”  
  
Yunho glared back at his lover. “No!”  
  
“Oh, what about this body paint? Oh, and it was in such an interesting area!” Jaejoong teased as he snatched more and more information from Yunho’s mind! “I didn’t know you were so open to me taking the-”  
  
“I am not open to it!” Yunho exclaimed, interrupting his lover, who was now completely enjoying himself.  
  
“You were.”  
  
“Was not!”  
  
“Baby,” Jaejoong said, repeating the endearment that the masculine Jaejoong had used, “I am a telepath, you can’t lie to me. The only reason you stopped it was because it wasn’t me. When you thought it was me, you were more than willing,” Jaejoong pointed out, deliberately annoying Yunho.  
  
Yunho growled and tapped Jaejoong’s chest. “Well, use your telepathic powers to read my mind, right now!”  
  
“Ouch!” Jaejoong proclaimed, leaning away from Yunho.  
  
Yunho turned to the Guardian, and quickly asked. “Guardian, is there any way I can block him from reading my thoughts?”  
  
“Yunho!” Jaejoong yelped, latching on to Yunho’s arm! “Don’t ask it that!”  
  
“Why not? You’d never tell me if there was a way, and it seems to know everything!”  
  
Jaejoong could have sworn the Guardian sounded amused when it answered, “Jung Yunho, in time a great many secrets will be reveled to you and your thoughts will not always be open to Jaejoong of the Royal House of Joong.”  
  
“Thank you, Guardian. I shall wait for that day with bated breath,” Yunho replied, finding his dislike of the Guardian slightly diminished. He loved Jaejoong, but dammit, he yearned for the day when his mind would be his own again.  
  
Yunho stepped away from the Guardian, ignoring the pissed off look Jaejoong was giving both him and the Guardian. The Guardian’s answer had annoyed and scared Jaejoong. Had the Guardian given him some kind of veiled threat? What did it mean by secrets being revealed in time?  
  
Jaejoong, who was still holding Yunho’s arm, pushed those thoughts aside and focused on his mate. “Yunho, I was just teasing.”  
  
“I don’t like it,” Yunho said, casting a disapproving look down at Jaejoong. “You have a clear advantage over me and it isn’t fair.”  
  
Jaejoong was so tempted to tell the man he had only been distracting him from the sadness of the reality he had last visited, but that would not have been entirely true. “I don’t know why you are so angry. I’m not the one that was practically having sex with someone else.”  
  
“What! He forced me!” Yunho shouted, shocked at Jaejoong’s words.  
  
Jaejoong tried his best to sneer and look cross at his lover. When Jaejoong was sure he had hidden his amusement he said in cold voice, “Whatever, he was about to go where no man has gone before.”  
  
“Ah..wha..no uhg,” Yunho sputtered, at a complete loss.  
  
Jaejoong tilted his head up giving Yunho his best snotty look. “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand the language of a cheater.”  
  
“Cheater? I didn’t cheat!”  
  
Jaejoong bit the inside of his cheeks for a moment to keep from laughing and replied, “Don’t forget you kissed the other one also……the fiery one with the soft lips.”  
  
“There is a difference between being kissed by somebody, and you kissing them. I didn’t initiate any of it!”  
  
“Nice try, but you’re still a cheater.”  
  
Yunho stared at Jaejoong suspiciously and asked, “And you didn’t kiss anybody?”  
  
Jaejoong, who had not let go of Yunho’s arm, allowed for a small smile to curl on his lips. “Well I did kiss the most dashing man on the hand.”  
  
Yunho’s eyes darkened. “You kissed...as in you kissed somebody.”  
  
Waves of jealously emanated off of Yunho and pelted Jaejoong. “On the hand,”  
Jaejoong quickly spit out. Surely Yunho wasn’t jealous. He wasn’t exactly the jealous type.  
  
“You initiated it though, didn’t you?” Yunho accused. “You wanted to kiss him.”  
  
“It was on the hand! The hand!”  
  
“Hmmmf, so how dashing was this man?’ Yunho asked, not even bothering to suppress his jealousy.  
  
Jaejoong stared up and Yunho flabbergasted by the man’s jealousy, and flattered at the same time. “Very.”  
  
“Jae-”  
  
Jaejoong quickly interrupted, “But sadly he was what you refer to as a homophobe.”  
  
“Well thank God for small wonders,” Yunho replied, trying to break free of Jaejoong’s hold on him.  
  
Jaejoong refused to relinquish his hold on him. “Yes, like I said all your other versions were dumbasses. I mean how could anybody resist me? I really feel sorry for my alternate in that timeline too. I can’t imagine being stuck with such a handsome version of you…and yet never to know your touch.”  
  
Yunho’s anger decreased slightly. “So he was another version of me?”  
  
“No, I just kissed the hands of random guys.” Jaejoong did not fake his sneer now. “Of course he was! Although he was much better dressed than you, I must admit. I was thinking you should totally change the official uniform for the Expectations crew, or maybe just yours. I am thinking of something dark, navy blue with gold trim…with a tad bit of white silk,” Jaejoong replied hopefully, as the thought of his Yunho in such a uniform excited him.  
  
Yunho fought the urge to chuckle at his bondmate. “I don’t think so. We need to tell the Guardian goodbye and get back to the palace.”  
  
“Palace,” Jaejoong replied unhappily.  
  
“Yes, we need to speak with Princess Claudia.”  
  
Jaejoong sneered in dislike. “I don’t know why we have to talk to her.”  
  
“It’s common courtesy,” Yunho explained as turned toward the Guardian. Yunho wasn’t really sure of what he should say.  _“What should I say? Should I say anything? You are the Joong, maybe you should tell it our goodbyes.”_  
  
“Be Gone,” the voice of the Guardian boomed.  
  
Yunho turned to Jaejoong with a shocked expression. Jaejoong just shook his head.  _“Yunho, it is all-knowing…as in it knows everything.”_  
  
“Then I guess we should be going,” Yunho replied, still a little shocked at being dismissed.  
  
“I still don’t know why we have to extend her a courtesy call. We did just save her planet,” Jaejoong grumbled.  
  
Yunho shook his head disapprovingly at Jaejoong, and tapped his insignia. “Commander, the situation here with the Guardian has been resolved. Have Donghae beam us back to the palace.”  
  
“Yes, Sir,” Commander Cho replied.  
  
Jaejoong clung to Yunho tighter. He wouldn’t dare read Yunho’s mind again so soon. But he was very curious as to how exactly Princess Claudia knew Yunho. Jaejoong would spare Yunho from further mindreading, but the young princess, well he would read her like a book. She better not have any romantic notions involving Yunho either. If she did, he would gladly rid her of any such delusions. Yunho was his, and only his.  
  
“Jaejoong, you better be nice,” Yunho said, full of warning, knowing instinctively what his lover was thinking.  
  
“Precious Pet, I’m always nice!” Jaejoong proclaimed evilly. Jaejoong watched in glee as Yunho’s face filled with horror as the Expectation’s transporter beams took them away.  
  
***************  
  
Days later in another region of space, a man knocked on a door that led to the private quarters of a very powerful man.  
  
Only seconds later the door opened, and a feminine, yet male voice could be heard beckoning him inside. “Come.”  
  
The man at the door, who was tall and rigid, stepped into the room. In the middle of the room another man laid upon a lavish bed wearing nothing but a black robe. Intelligent eyes were studying rack after rack of lavish clothing that filled the room. “The servants brought me all these wonderful garments, and yet there isn’t anything that calls to me.”  
  
“My Lord, you would look magnificent in anything.”  
  
“A very smart response, but it’s of no help to me.”  
  
“I apologize, My Lord.”  
  
“Seung-hyun, what brings you to my room? I did not call for you,” the man on the bed asked, casting his eyes upon Seung-hyun for the first time since the other man entered the room.  
  
“I have information regarding the Planet Eternity and the Time Keeper, My Lord.”  
  
“Hmm…so the secret behind the Time Keeper’s tantrum is to be revealed. Please do enlighten me.”  
  
Seung-hyun swallowed nervously, knowing not all of the information he acquired would be welcome. “The Planet Eternity had sent out a distress call, pleading for assistance…they were requesting a Joong.”  
  
“So the Time Keeper was demanding a Joong, and destroying a world in the process,” the man surmised as he traced his bottom lip with one of his fingers. “And was their plea for assistance answered?”  
  
“The same ship that aided the traitorous trader Shindong in escaping us, also answered the Planet Eternity’s distress call.”  
  
Seung-hyun jumped back unable to hide his fear, as the man lurched out of bed, and was suddenly face to face with him. “And please explain how that ship could assist them,” the man whispered in a dangerous voice.  
  
“It appears that Jaejoong has taken up residence on that ship.”  
  
“My Jaejoong?”  
  
“Yes, sir,” Seung-hyun answered, forcing himself to find the courage to continue. “It appears he has taken a mate.”  
  
The man screamed, and pushed Seung-hyun ruthlessly to the floor. The man then turned around, knocking his carefully collected clothing onto the floor and stomping on them. “No! No! No! It can’t be! I refuse to believe it!”  
  
Seung-hyun watched from the floor as the man tore through the room, destroying everything he touched. Seung-hyun dared not say a word, fearful the man’s rage would turn on him.  
  
The man picked up a priceless vase and smashed it to pieces, and screamed out, “Jaejoong hasn’t taken a mate…he can’t have! Why are you saying this?”  
  
“My Lord, his appearance is much changed now. The representative from Eternity, after hours of torture, finally confirmed that Jaejoong had taken the captain of the ship…the ship, Expectations, as his mate.”  
  
Seung-hyun watched as the man crumbled to the floor dramatically, after hearing his last words. “No, not my Jaejoong. He was supposed to my Joong…Mine! He was supposed to be mine. I was too patient with him. I should have never made that promise! He abused my kindness!”  
  
“My Lord, your kindness is limitless.”  
  
“Not anymore,” the man roared as he stood back up with clenched fists. The black robe the man was wearing hung loosely off him, hiding nothing. “Not anymore. Jaejoong will regret ignoring all my advances…he will regret denying me.”  
  
Seung-hyun climbed back to his feet, but said nothing as he watched the man fly to a safe that was embedded inside the wall of the room. The man flung it open and pulled out two necklaces, each made of rare pink crystals. “Do you know what these necklaces are? What they can do?”  
  
“No, My Lord.” Seung-hyun had only seen the necklace upon Jaejoong. Jaejoong had been forced to wear one of them during his entire stay on the ship.  
  
The man stared back at Seung-hyun with eyes so cold that it took all Seung-hyun’s strength to not look away. “With these necklaces, powerful Joongs are made into mere men. It evens the playing field.”  
  
“I see, My Lord.”  
  
The man returned one of the necklaces to the safe, and then he turned toward Seung-hyun. Eyes that had been dark and deadly just a moment before now sparkled with a new light. The man handed the necklace to Seung-hyun. “Assist me,” the man ordered in a seductive tone as he lifted his lustrous, red hair up and away from his neck.  
  
“Yes, My Lord,” Seung-hyun obeyed as he placed the necklace around the man’s neck and fastened it.  
  
The man then walked away from Seung-hyun and toward a mirror. He smiled at his reflection. “Yes, Jaejoong will regret the day he betrayed me.”  
  
“As he should, My Lord.”  
  
“I already know everything I need to know about defeating his captain.”  
  
Seung-hyun flinched, what little they knew about the ship Expectations hinted that the ship was much more advanced than anything they had.  
  
“And do you know what that is, Seung-hyun?”  
  
“No, my Lord.”  
  
“This captain answers calls for help,” the master said laughing. “Jaejoong’s mate is eager to offer a helping hand.”  
  
“Yes, my Lord.”  
  
The man turned back around and let his eyes drift up and down Seung-hyun’s body, before he walked back to him. The man then reached out a hand, and caressed Seung-hyun’s face. “Tempting, but not tempting enough,” the man said, pulling his hand away. “Now go learn everything there is to learn about the Expectations and her crew. Details never hurt, when one is setting a trap.”  
  
“Yes, My Lord,” Seung-hyun answered his master, hiding his relief as he quickly exited the room.  
  
The man watched as his most trusted officer left the room. Then the man let the robe fall off of him, pooling at his feet. The tall, slender man vowed in a voice devoid of kindness, “If I, Lord ZhouMi, can’t have Jaejoong…then no man will.”


End file.
